No concrete motive

What is known so far about the Sydney attacker

The Australian police after the knife attack in a Sydney shopping center

(Bild: AFP)

One day after the fatal knife attack in a Sydney shopping center, more details are now available about the attacker. The 40-year-old apparently had no ideological or other specific motive, said Anthony Cooke of the New South Wales Police.

"It seems clear to us at this stage that it was to do with his mental health," he said on Sunday morning (local time). The police officer did not elaborate on this point. The man was already known to the police before the crime on Saturday, but not for serious crimes.

Talked to family
His family has since been spoken to. The perpetrator had moved to New South Wales from the state of Queensland in March and had been using a small storage room that had already been searched.

Police are still investigating the fatal knife attack in Sydney.

(Bild: AFP)

As reported, the attacker stabbed several people in a busy shopping center in Sydney on Saturday afternoon (see video above). Five died on the spot, a sixth victim succumbed to his injuries in hospital. Other injured people are still being treated there, including a few-month-old baby whose mother was killed.

Eyewitness: We hid in a store
An eyewitness said that she hid in a store with 20 other people when others started to run out of the shopping center. She said she saw a baby with stab wounds being taken to an ambulance. "The mother was panicking, she was sad. She held the baby and comforted it." Two other eyewitnesses said they heard gunshots. In fact, a policewoman shot the knife attacker.