Five Stabbed In New Zealand Knife Attack, Terror Link Ruled Out

Police said the attack -- highly unusual in the normally peaceful South Pacific nation -- occurred at a Countdown supermarket in central Dunedin at 2:30pm (0230GMT) and a man had been taken into custody.

A knife-wielding attacker stabbed five people in a New Zealand supermarket Monday, critically injuring three, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it appeared the rampage was not terror related. Police said the attack -- highly unusual in the normally peaceful South Pacific nation -- occurred at a Countdown supermarket in central Dunedin at 2:30pm (0230GMT) and a man had been taken into custody. Witnesses told local media a man carrying two knives stabbed staff in the supermarket and bystanders who tried to stop him were also injured. The most recent mass-casualty attack in New Zealand was the Christchurch mosques shootings in March 2019, when a white supremacist gunman murdered 51 Muslim worshippers and severely injured another 40.