Sydney shopping centre attack: Death toll climbs to five

Five people have been killed at a busy Sydney shopping centre stabbing attack.

Multiple people were stabbed, including a small child, on Saturday at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is in the city’s eastern suburbs.

Armed police shot the suspect, according to local media reports.

Video has emerged of a man wearing shorts and a sports jersey jogging inside the shopping centre, carrying a knife.

A witness who had been near a gym at the shopping centre saw the man, and told Nine he looked “scattered and chaotic”.

Nine people were stabbed in total.

Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters officials did not know who the offender was yet.

“This is quite raw,” he said.

Cooke said at a press conference the attacker “acted alone” and police say there is no “no continuing threat” to the public.

Asked if there was a suspected motivation, he said authorities are still investigating.

Video showed many ambulances and police cars around the shopping centre, and people streaming out. ABC reported that armed police were searching a rooftop parking lot.

Paramedics were treating patients at the scene.

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told reporters he sheltered in a store during the incident.

“Suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked. She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.”