Australian police fatally shoot man who stabbed 7 at mall

PERTH, Australia – Australian police fatally shot a man who stabbed and slashed seven people at and near a shopping mall on Friday, officials said.

None of the victims of the rampage in the northwest coastal town of South Hedland suffered life-threatening injuries. Five were hospitalized with stab wounds, including two who remain in serious but stable condition, officials said.

Police have not revealed a motive. There was no indication the assailant, aged in his 30s, was politically or ideologically motivated, Western Australia state Police Commissioner Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said.

The assailant first stabbed a man at a motel near the mall and then another man who was sitting in a car at a nearby fast food restaurant, police said.

He then knifed two men and three women at the mall, including a woman pushing a baby carriage. The child was not injured.

Two police officers Tasered the man but he still lunged at them with the knife, Dawson said. A policeman fired several shots and killed him, he said.

Nearby Port Hedland exports iron ore, and the suspect was a member of the mining work force who commute by plane 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) from the state capital, Perth.