New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jinda Ardern has promised to tighten counter-terrorism laws following an Islamic extremist attack on a supermarket in Auckland on Friday, BBC News reported.
“We need to be prepared to make changes that we know have not changed history at all, but can change the future,” she told a news briefing.
A man, a Sri Lankan citizen, struck seven people in a supermarket. Three of them are in critical condition. The attacker, a police-supervised supporter of the Islamic State, was shot dead by police.
Read more: An Islamic extremist has clashed six people in New Zealand
Arderna, who described the knife attack on the store as a “terrorist attack”, hoped that parliament would support changes to the country’s anti-terrorism legislation by the end of September.
The attacker was arrested several times before Friday’s incident. But Arderna said all legal options for preventing him from society were exhausted.
The attack took place on Friday afternoon at Countdown in LynnMall, New York’s Auckland.
The surveillance team and a team of specialist tactics had followed the man from his home to the supermarket. But while there were concerns about him, officials said they had no reason to believe he was planning an attack on Friday, and the team believed he was going to shop in grocery stores. However, after entering the store, the man took a knife in his hand and went to stab people.
Buyer Michel Miller told the local news agency Stuff that the man “ran around like crazy” and attacked people. She just heard a scream.-
“[Cilvēki] ran out, hysterically, just screaming, screaming, scared, ”said another witness, adding that he had seen an older man lying on the ground with a door wound.
Eyewitnesses also said that the attacker shouted “Allah akbar” (God is the greatest).
Police Commissioner Andrew Koster said police heard them in a hurry and shot the attacker. It happened within 60 seconds of the attack.
What is known about the attacker?
The man, whose identity could not be revealed due to court orders, arrived in New Zealand on a student visa in 2011. He became an interested person in the State Security Service in 2016.
He was closely monitored because of concerns about his ideology. The man’s name was also on the terrorist watch list. Local media report that the attacker was 32 years old and was recently sentenced to one year of supervision for holding Islamic propaganda.
Prosecutors accused him of planning a terrorist act as a “lone wolf” using knives, but the judge ruled that planning a terrorist act was not in itself an offense under current law, reports said.
His Internet search history and bookmarks included Islamic country heroes, Islamic country costumes, and New Zealand prison clothing and food, Stuff reports.
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