Two people, attacker killed ahead of women’s football World Cup in New Zealand
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SYDNEY – At least two people and an armed attacker were killed, and five others wounded, in a shooting in New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland on Thursday, hours ahead of the opening match of the women’s football World Cup in the city.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the football tournament would proceed as planned, adding that the shooting appeared to be the actions of an individual and that the police were not seeking anyone else in relation to the incident.
“There was no identified political or ideological motivation for the shooting and therefore no national security risk,” Mr Hipkins said during a televised media briefing. There will be no change to New Zealand’s security threat level, although there would be an increased police presence in the city, he said.
Auckland welcomed thousands of international players and tourists for the ninth Women’s World Cup, which is being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said an officer was injured in the shooting, as well as four members of the public.
The gunman has not been formally identified, but is believed to be a 24-year-old man who was employed at the construction site where the shooting occurred, Mr Coster said at a news conference.
He was armed with a pump action shotgun and moved through the building site shooting. After reaching the upper levels, he contained himself within an elevator shaft and fired more shots before being found dead a short time later.
The gunman was the subject of a home detention sentence, but had an exemption to work at the site. “The individual is known for primarily family violence history. There is nothing to suggest that he has presented a higher-level risk than was indicated by that history,” Mr Coster said.
Football teams from New Zealand, Norway, Italy, the United States, Vietnam and Portugal were known to be in the city when the shooting occurred.
“Fifa has been informed that this was an isolated incident that was not related to football operations, and the opening match tonight at Eden Park will proceed as planned,” the global governing body for the sport said in a statement.
“The participating teams in close proximity to this incident are being supported in relation to any impact that may have taken place.”
In the two opening matches on Thursday, Norway plays New Zealand in Auckland, while Australia faces Ireland in Sydney.
The shooting took place near the Norwegian team hotel in downtown Auckland, and several players took to social media to report they were safe.
“All seems calm, and we are preparing as normal for the match tonight,” Norway captain Maren Mjelde told Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang during the police operation.
The Italian team’s training has been delayed as players cannot get out of their hotel, the team said, while the US team said all its players and staff were accounted for and safe.
The husband of US Vice-President Kamala Harris, Mr Douglas Emhoff, who is leading the presidential delegation to New Zealand to attend the opening ceremony of the World Cup, is safe, the American embassy said.
Several streets in Auckland were cordoned off, all ferry services into the city have been cancelled, and buses running through some areas will be detoured.
New Zealand PM Chris Hipkins said that there would be an increased police presence in the city.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Ms Maurane Mifort-Paon, an 18-year-old tourist from France, said: “At first I was kind of worried, but when I saw how the police were everywhere, it was very reassuring.”
A Fifa fan festival event just a few blocks from the shooting was also delayed.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said the shooting was not in any way related to the World Cup.
Gun violence is rare in New Zealand, which tightened its gun laws after a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch in 2019 in the country’s worst peace-time mass shooting. REUTERS
