At least two individuals have been killed and 5 others injured after a gunman stormed a constructing underneath building with a shotgun in the New Zealand metropolis of Auckland early Thursday, hours earlier than the primary soccer match of the Women’s World Cup was scheduled to start in the town.
The gunman was additionally killed, the police mentioned in a post on Twitter. They mentioned {that a} police officer was taken to a hospital in important situation, however that his situation had stabilized.
The New Zealand Police started receiving reviews of an individual firing a gun inside the development website about 7:20 a.m. native time, a police spokeswoman, Anna Thompson, mentioned in an electronic mail.
Passers-by and commuters heard the volley of gunshots throughout rush hour. Armed law enforcement officials and automobiles swarmed the realm, and the authorities shut down elements of the town.
The episode occurred as groups from New Zealand and Norway have been set to play at Eden Park Stadium, about three miles from the positioning of the taking pictures. Several World Cup groups and plenty of followers are staying in Auckland’s central enterprise district, and the taking pictures occurred very shut to Norway’s group lodge and close to a fan competition arrange for the match.
The United States group, which is able to play its first recreation right here towards Vietnam in two days, can also be staying in the realm.
“Regarding the incident in downtown Auckland, all of our USWNT players and staff are accounted for and safe,” U.S. Soccer mentioned in an announcement, referring to the acronym for United States ladies’s nationwide group. “Our security team is in communication with local authorities and we are proceeding with our daily schedule.”
The taking pictures came about in a busy downtown space crowded with workplace buildings and lodges throughout the road from a ferry terminal on the town’s waterfront.
The police mentioned an armed man had entered the high-rise constructing — which was occupied by dozens of building staff, on decrease Queen Street — and went flooring by flooring whereas taking pictures.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, mentioned at a information convention that the shooter was armed with a pump-action shotgun and that it appeared he had acted alone.
Within minutes, scores of law enforcement officials carrying automated weapons descended on the positioning, warning individuals to take cowl and ushering them out of the realm. Streets have been closed in a two-block space, and a police helicopter hovered overhead. Officers pursued the gunman to the higher flooring, and as soon as there, an change of gunfire — audible on the road beneath the tower — ensued.
“Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, the male has contained himself within the elevator shaft and our staff have attempted to engage with him,” the police mentioned. “Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later.”
Mr. Hipkins mentioned the gunman had made his approach towards the elevator, and that was the place his physique was later discovered. The gunman was not instantly recognized.
Construction staff, a lot of whom hid in the constructing throughout the taking pictures, have been launched hours later, and the police cleared the constructing.
A motive for the taking pictures and different particulars weren’t instantly out there.
Mr. Hipkins mentioned the Women’s World Cup would proceed as deliberate. FIFA, soccer’s international governing physique and the organizer of the match, mentioned its high leaders had communicated with the New Zealand authorities and that the group was “in constant contact with the participating teams affected by this incident.”
The mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, mentioned in a post on Twitter: “This is a scary situation for Aucklanders on their Thursday morning commute to work. Please stay at home, avoid travel into the city centre.”
Norway’s gamers have been all in their lodge throughout the taking pictures; some have been nonetheless asleep, however native information reviews mentioned just a few had come down for breakfast in a eating room simply off the bottom flooring foyer. As the police moved to shut off entry to the realm across the taking pictures, safety guards requested members of the Norway delegation to keep contained in the lodge, in accordance to the president of Norway’s soccer federation, Lise Klaveness.
“Everything is calm in the Norwegian squad,” Halvor Lea, a spokesman for the Norway ladies’s group, mentioned in an announcement. “Preparations are going as normal.”
In one other assertion, Maren Mjelde, the captain of the Norway group, mentioned, many gamers most certainly had woken up to the sound of a helicopter exterior the window of their lodge and the emergency automobiles that had arrived out entrance.
“We felt safe the whole time,” she mentioned.
In New Zealand, gun possession is comparatively low and gun violence is taken into account uncommon. But in 1997, six individuals have been killed and 4 others injured in the North Island city of Raurimu. And in 1990, a gunman in the small seaside township of Aramoana killed 13 people and injured three others earlier than he was shot lifeless by the police. The shootings led to a 1992 modification to the laws on military-style semiautomatic weapons.
Then, in March 2019, 51 individuals have been killed in a mass taking pictures after a white supremacist opened hearth on Muslims at prayer in two mosques in Christchurch.
Days later, Jacinda Ardern, then prime minister, introduced a short lived ban on most semiautomatic weapons, and a monthslong gun buyback and amnesty program started. Later that 12 months, a sweeping nationwide ban went into impact.
Tariq Panja contributed reporting from Sydney, Australia.
