RUN, RUN, RUN: 6 people stabbed to death in Sydney shopping mall.

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SYDNEY – A man stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center on Saturday, police said, as hundreds of people fled the chaotic scene, many carrying crying children. Eight people, including a 9-month-old child, were injured.

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New South Wales Police believe a 40-year-old man is responsible for the attack at the Westfield shopping center at Bondi Junction in the city's eastern suburbs on Saturday afternoon. They said they could not release his name until it was officially identified, but that they were not treating the attack as terrorism-related at this time.

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New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cook told reporters the man was shot dead by a female police inspector after he turned and brandished a knife.

“It all happened very quickly – the officer who was nearby went on his own, the people who were in the center guided the location of the offender,” he said. “He did what he did to save so many lives.”

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The stabbing at the mall, which was a hotbed of daytime activity in the unusual fall year, began around 3:10 p.m., and police were called shortly after.

“They just ran, ran, ran – someone got stabbed,” one witness told ABC television in Australia. “(The attacker) walked calmly as if he was eating ice cream in the park. Then he went up the escalator … and within about a minute we heard three gunshots.

Six of the victims – five women and one man – died suspiciously. The officer performed CPR on the attacker until paramedics arrived, who also worked on the man.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said eight people who were injured were being treated in hospitals. The baby was operated on, but it is too early to know the situation, he said.

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“We are confident that there is no ongoing threat and we are currently dealing with one person who has died,” Webb said at a later briefing. He added: “This is not an incident of terrorism.”

Witnesses were shocked by the rare violence. In 1996, Australia enacted stricter gun laws after a man killed 35 people and wounded 23 others in Tasmania.

“I saw all the people running and I didn't know what was going on,” said Ayush Singh. “I thought it was someone playing and a little while later I saw a guy with a knife walking down the sidewalk to the cafe where I work.”

He said police arrived quickly and told everyone to stay put.

Singh said he saw a man running a few meters away with a knife. “I didn't hear him say anything,” he added. “Just some random guy stabbing people. Crazy guy.”

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In a video shared online, a man is seen standing up to the attacker on an escalator at a shopping mall, holding a pole against him.

Roy Huberman, a sound engineer for Australia's ABC TV, told the network he took shelter in the store during the incident.

“All of a sudden we heard a shot or two, and we didn't know what to do,” he said. “Then a very capable man in the shop took us to the back where we could lock it. Then he closed the store, and then he let us through the back, and now we're out.”

Shocked people, many with children in their arms, ran out of the mall as the attack unfolded. Ambulance workers helped the victims at the scene. The mall and its surrounding area remained on lockdown as police pieced together the incident.

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“It's been an incredibly sad day for so many people in our community, people who went to the shops today, for a packed mall, and then to be faced with something that we can never imagine here, something that is so disturbing and scary for so many people.” Kelly Sloan, local legislator.

The most senior members of the British royal family, who are also members of the royal family in Australia, were shocked and saddened by the stabbing.

King Charles III said he and his wife Queen Camilla were “absolutely shocked and appalled” by the “senseless attack” in Sydney and their “hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who were so brutally murdered”. The king's eldest son, Prince William, and his wife, Catherine, Princess of Wales, said they were also “shocked and saddened” and their thoughts were with the victims and “heroic emergency responders who risked their lives to save others”.

Pope Francis also mourned the “senseless tragedy” in Sydney, expressing his “spiritual closeness” to all those affected and prayers for the dead and wounded. The message is contained in a cable sent to Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher and sent by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

— Associated Press writers Pan Pilas in London and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

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