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A KNIFE-WIELDING man killed one person and attempted to stab several others in a central Sydney rampage before being chased and pinned down by members of the public, witnesses have said.
Police said a 21-year-old Sydney man with a history of mental illness is believed to have killed a woman of around the same age in a residential unit before going on the rampage across the city centre.
The New South Wales police commissioner said the man had no known links to terror organisations, but he did have a USB drive with details of mass-casualty white-supremacist attacks in the US and New Zealand.
Witness Megan Hales said she saw a man brandishing a large kitchen knife chasing several people through the busy central business district shortly after lunchtime.
A 41-year-old woman who was stabbed is now said to be in a stable condition.
“Five or six others were chasing him behind, trying to stop him, they caught him and restrained him” in front of two popular cafes in the heart of the city, Hales said.
Four of the pursuers were Colombian-born Alex Roberts, and Britons Lee Cuthbert and brothers Paul and Luke O’Shaughnessy – all colleagues at a recruitment consultancy who raced from their fourth-floor office to the street.
“We’ve opened the window and seen the guy wielding a knife and jumping on the bonnet” of a nearby car, Paul O’Shaughnessy, a former professional footballer, said.
Convinced it was a terrorist attack, his brother Luke – a champion Muay Thai boxer – led the chase.
“We all just ran down the building and chased him down the street,” said Roberts.
“Everyone was kind of panicking, no one really knew what was happening,” he said. “Not your normal Tuesday afternoon.”
Cuthbert said Luke, with the help of another man, “managed to get him down on to the floor and pin him down” with chairs and a plastic crate before police arrived.
“We’re a very, very close team, we’re a start-up recruitment company” he added.
We’re all brothers really, so when you see brothers running, your natural instinct is to go and follow.
Police said despite indications the assailant shouted “Allahu Akbar” and “shoot me” it was not yet clear whether there was a political motive.
“It would appear at this stage it is unprovoked but we are keeping a very open mind as we move forward,” police spokesman superintendent Gavin Wood said, hailing the action of the bystanders.
“To approach a person… with clear evidence of a stabbing previously, these people are heroes.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison also praised the bravery of the onlookers.
“The attacker is now in police custody following the brave actions of those who were present at the scene and were able to able to restrain him,” he said in a tweet.
Our thoughts are with all those who have been impacted by this violent attack.
Holy s!ht balls. That is so scary. Fair play to those men who pursued and caught him.
@Motherofthree: completely – thought it was cops, but it was all good guys – even the guy in the blue suit with the kick one he was caught. Probably as far as justice will go.
Go wan the O’Shaughnesseys.
@Motherofthree: that’s an Irish name of the brothers am I right !!
No where is safe while nut cases like him are everywhere.
@Mick McGuinness: bit of an overstatement?
@Mick McGuinness: get a grip. They aren’t everywhere.
@GrahamMManning: It’s true though Graham, between these guys and the rise of white supremacy the world is becoming a more dangerous place.
@Mick McGuinness: try America, real safe place there!
@Jen McCartney: The article is about an Islamist attack in Australia though stick to the story.
@Darren: except it’s not really, as stated in the article.
@Darren: ah come on they’re not everywhere! I’m mean are there religious extremist or white nationalist terrorists in Leitrim? No. So they’re not everywhere. Are these kind of lone wolf nutjob terrorist attack last nite prevalent now? Maybe, don’t have the stats. There’s definitely more coverage. And the world, for all its dangers, is a safer place now than its ever been and that’s a statistical fact. Doesn’t mean horrendous things don’t get done to innocent people thanks to evil b@€tards but I’d still choose to be alive now rather than anytime in the past.
@Jen McCartney: compared to plenty of places it is.
@GrahamMManning: “attacks more prevalent”
@Dave O’Keeffe: Except it is in reality and you know it just doesn’t suit your agenda.
@Mick McGuinness: There has always been mental illness, and sometimes psychotic people are violent. But to say Nowhere is safe is just fearmongering
@Darren: my agenda? An escaped mental patient stabs people and you won’t believe it was becaise he was mental but I’m the one with the agenda? There is no evidence that he was an Islamic fundamentalist
@Darren: no it isn’t. Not Islamic at all
Don’t F##k with the Aussies. Members of the Public Hunted him down!
@Joe Kelly:
The guys who hunted him down were English not Aussies.
@Joe Kelly: Actually it was three British men who captured him. They held him down for the police to come and arrest him.
@Paul O Connor: one of them is an O’Shaughnessy!
@Pat Culleton: One Colombian and three British men
@Joe Kelly:
I know these guys, and they’re British with Irish parents. They are absolutely top blokes, family men and hard workers. Their heroic bravery today matches what I know of them already :)
@Louise Walsh: https://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/news/home/437757/donegal-man-helped-restrain-sydney-knife-attacker.html
Graham Wilson nowhere to be seen on this article wonder why?
@Darren: but are ya gonna get the Wilson or the Wannabe?
What does Alluha Akbar mean?
@Thewestisbest: Ever hear of google?
@davey boy: Ever hear of sarcasm?
@Thewestisbest: Mental illness.
@Thewestisbest:
Stone Age
@Thewestisbest: what’s that got to do with this article? Oh, nothing it would seem!
@Dave Thomas: did you read the article?
@Thewestisbest: It’s farsi for ‘last orders’.
@Dave Thomas: You should have read it yourself before commenting.
What a pity he didn’t cut his own throat!
Mental health issues should not be laughed at or mocked. It’s quite typical for people with mental health problems to gravitate to a higher power. This is not terrorism. He was not a nutcase or a martyr. It’s a man who needed medical care. Anyone with personal experience with mental health issues wouldn’t post such nonsense. Thankfully individuals took him down as if it was up to the police he would have been shot and killed. It’s happened twice in Australia in the past year – in one incident a man who was carrying
scissors and wanted to be shot. Less discuss this for what it is – which has nothing to do with Islam.
@Conor: do you know this for a fact? Source?
@GrahamMManning: Well considering he recently absconded from a mental health facility ….
@Conor: you have mental issues
@conor cultural enrichment at it’s best
@GrahamMManning: he doe’snt have one
Jaysus, not hard to spot the GO’DBots around here nowadays
Ah I see you’ve played knifey-cratey before……
America needs the gun…
Aussies have the Milk crate!
Don’t mess with the Oz!!!
@IrishFreeSpeechParty: they were Brits, not Aussies.
@IrishFreeSpeechParty: Thats not a milk crate THIS is a milk crate…..
Just shows that the “good guys” don’t need a gun to stop a massacre
@Jonathan Nolan: True when the ‘bad guy’ has a knife and not a gun.
@Will: The reason he only had a knife is because of the Aussie gun laws. Since 1996, there hasn’t been one mass shooting in Australia. Before that, there was an average of nine deaths a year from mass shootings. Gun control works.
@Tanks a Minion: Thank you for the info but I was simply responding to the notion that you don’t need a gun to stop a massacre.
If the perpetrator is armed with a gun it’s probably best that any have a go heroes are also so armed.
@Will: the ‘good guy with a gun’ claim is a myth, ‘An FBI study of 160 active-shooting incidents from 2000 to 2013 found that only one was stopped by an individual with a valid firearms permit. In contrast, 21 incidents were stopped by unarmed citizens.’
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/guns-crime/reports/2017/10/05/440373/myth-vs-fact-debunking-gun-lobbys-favorite-talking-points/
@EillieEs: i thought there was a case last week where an armed citizen intervened to stop an incident. I could be wrong though.
@Seamus Mac: and how many have there been this year that weren’t? PS the study was between 2000 and 2013 so last week wasn’t included, I have no idea why. Maybe you can help me out?
In all walks of life there is good and bad. But the vast majority of there ways and thinking is no different than a cult. And mainly to do with the US and UK whom didnt encourage them to join in the 60s when people where fighting for rights and change. They left these to evolve into our society turning a blind eye to things we would not accept in our society.
@KingBongoHead: really? Catholics will be very disappointed to learn that they are not Christians. You know Christianity isn’t actually a faith just as Islam isn’t they are groupings of faiths with each faith being a different variation of the overarching philosophy.
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