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Queen in Auckland cordoned off by police following the shooting. Alamy Stock Photo

New Zealand gunman kills two people on eve of Women's World Cup

Police have confirmed that the shooter died at the scene, adding that the attack was not “a national security risk” but that investigations are ongoing.

LAST UPDATE | 20 Jul 2023

A GUNMAN HAS stormed a high-rise construction site in downtown Auckland, shooting at terrified workers and killing two people as New Zealand prepares to host games in the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

The gunman was found dead after a police shootout, during which an officer was shot and injured. Four civilians were also injured.

The shooting happened near hotels where Team Norway and other soccer teams have been staying.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has expressed shock and “deep sorrow” at the shooting.

He confirmed the tournament would go ahead as scheduled.

He said: “Clearly with the Fifa World Cup kicking off this evening, there are a lot of eyes on Auckland.

“The government has spoken to Fifa organisers this morning and the tournament will proceed as planned.”

Police believe the attack was not directly linked to the World Cup, nor was it politically or ideologically motivated.

“I want to reiterate that there is no wider national security threat. This appears to be the action of one individual,” Hipkins said.

Hipkins said the gunman was armed with a pump-action shotgun. Police arrived within minutes of the first emergency call and ran into harm’s way to save lives.

ambulances-arrive-at-the-scene-of-a-shooting-in-the-central-business-in-aucklandnew-zealand-thursday-july-20-2023-new-zealand-police-are-responding-to-reports-that-a-gunman-has-fired-shots-in-a-b Ambulances arrive at the scene of a shooting in the central business in Auckland, New Zealand. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

“These kinds of situations move fast and the actions of those who risk their lives to save others are nothing short of heroic,” Hipkins said.

Police commissioner Andrew Coster said the gunman was a 24-year-old who had previously worked at the building site, and the motivation for the shooting appeared connected to his work there.

The gunman had a history of family violence and was serving a sentence of home detention but had an exemption to work at the lower Queen Street site, Coster said.

The gunman began shooting at about 7.20am (8pm Wednesday Irish time) and police soon swarmed the area.

He moved through the building firing at people as many workers fled or hid.

The gunman then barricaded himself in an elevator shaft on the third floor, Coster said, where Swat-type officers engaged him after securing the floors above and below.

“The offender fired at police, injuring an officer,” Coster said. “Shots were exchanged and the offender was later found deceased.”

He said it was not yet clear if police had shot the gunman or he had killed himself. He said the gunman did not have a gun licence and so should not have been in possession of a weapon.

members-of-the-philippines-womens-world-cup-team-walk-to-their-team-bus-following-a-shooting-near-their-hotel-in-the-central-business-district-in-aucklandnew-zealand-thursday-july-20-2023-a-gunm Members of the Philippines Women's World Cup team walk to their team bus following a shooting near their hotel in the central business district in Auckland, New Zealand. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Coster said: “I want to acknowledge that this has been a shocking and traumatic event for those people who came to work and found themselves in the middle of an armed emergency.

“Thankfully, many people were able to escape the building, but I know for those who hid or remained trapped, this was a terrifying experience.”

Outside, armed police officers had the commercial business district on heavy lockdown with streets cordoned off surrounding the tourist harbour ferry terminal area. Police demanded bystanders disperse and ordered people inside their office buildings to shelter in place.

World Cup

The incident comes as soccer teams and fans gathered in New Zealand for the Fifa Women’s World Cup.

The opening match is scheduled for today between New Zealand and Norway. Hipkins said he was reviewing whether he would attend the match as planned.

Officials at Eden Park, where the opening match is taking place, said they were encouraging ticket holders to arrive early and there would be an increased security presence at the venue.

“There will be an increased security presence within the precinct and across the venue. Additional traffic management measures are in place,” Eden Park said.

Fifa said a minute of silence would be held before the two opening games.

Norway Captain Maren Mjelde said players were woken up by a helicopter hovering outside the venue.

“We felt safe the whole time,” she said in a statement. “Fifa has a good security system at the hotel and we have our own security officer in the squad.

“Everyone seems calm and we are preparing as normal for the game.”

Includes reporting by Press Association and © AFP 2023

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24 Comments
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    Mute Patrick Presley
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    Oct 26th 2023, 8:49 AM

    Enough punishment has been administered for the moment.

    186
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    Mute Donal Ronan
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    Oct 26th 2023, 9:08 AM

    Oops! Less profit for our robber banks, seeing as this is where they make most of their profits, lodging our deposits with the ECB.
    Just another way of socialising their profits at European taxpayers expense.

    97
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    Mute did you every wonder
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:55 PM

    @Donal Ronan: But we have a regulator, apparently, that keeps prices in check !. Works great for energy and food prices !. Tax payers money at work.

    23
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    Mute larry smith
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    Oct 26th 2023, 9:03 AM

    A bank is being robbed by two gunmen . Everything went smoothly , quickly and quietly ,however before exiting the bank one gunman says to the other what kind of robbery is this if know one is injured or killed “you’re right kill that woman over there “says the other gunman ,
    What’s your name he asks the cashier the woman feebly replied Sophia,
    I can’t kill her as my wife is call Sophia,ok kill the man beside her ,hey fella what’s your name ,,Billy says the man but everyone calls me Sophia .

    108
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    Mute Liam Foy
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    Oct 26th 2023, 11:01 AM

    In what do we believe a bunch of very wealthy individuals in the ECB hiking interest rates, how well expert with experience are they. Lagarde is no expert but she leads the charge. Inflation has got much worse and still the EU has no idea how to contain it like the Japanese at their 3%. But their we go punishing decision for the average family is put off into some future date.

    37
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    Mute Roy Kenneally
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:39 PM

    @Liam Foy: Inflation isn’t worse. It was 8.6% in Sept 2022 and 5% in Sept 2023, ie. slowing down. It means the price of things are still going up, but not as quickly.

    13
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    Mute Paddy C
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:48 PM

    Lagarde said when she was here ‘she feels our pain’ doubt that somehow on her salary, pushing people into arrears and possibly homeless great work alright.

    34
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    Mute Timo
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    Oct 26th 2023, 12:08 PM

    And lucky to get 1.5% on a 5 year deposit account.
    What a joke

    28
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    Mute Pato
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    Oct 26th 2023, 9:39 AM

    Have the idiots in the ECB finally recognised what everyone else knew all along, that hiking rates the way they did would eventually cause inflation rather than cure i

    78
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    Mute Monetpenny
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    Oct 26th 2023, 12:33 PM

    @Pato: no. They didn’t get it during & in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 financial crash either. It is written in a widely read economics textbook somewhere that to control inflation (no matter what the cause or type of inflation) you must (‘MUST’ I tell ya) increase interest rates. So they do it.
    If inflation is ‘imported’ or is caused by government lockdowns & subsequent spending to stimulate an economy the government sedated or wars or foreign government policies that affect energy supply & costs it doesn’t matter.
    We don’t stop those wars. We don’t reverse government policy & increase energy supply.
    We increase interest rates.

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    Mute Mick Duvanny
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:41 PM

    @Monetpenny: See Turkey for what happens when you reduce interest rates during high inflation

    13
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    Mute Eddie Garvey
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    Oct 26th 2023, 3:36 PM

    They printed so much money to keep the economies booming, which had the effect of devaluing our money and our wages, which caused inflation to strike, then they massively increased interest rates to stop people spending the money they added to the system. They are literally making it up as they go along to ensure the wealthy stay wealthy

    20
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    Mute World Taekwondo Association Master Sheamus
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    Oct 26th 2023, 11:02 AM

    About Time, Seriously

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    Mute Des Leavy
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    Oct 26th 2023, 10:51 AM

    Comments Closed

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    Mute Jonathan Hanlon
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:35 PM

    Please start dropping

    14
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    Mute Alan Fitzgerald
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    Oct 26th 2023, 2:45 PM

    Surely a huge chunk of inflation is down to energy price increases and interest rates increases will have little to no effect on these. Government tax and excise increases also fuels the fire and again interest rates won’t effect these.

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    Mute R Incognito
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    Oct 26th 2023, 2:32 PM

    My fixed rate @ 2.6% is ending in November. Should I re-fix @ 4.15% ( lowest fixed rate available to me ) or stay on a variable @ 4.50% and wait and see if things improve ? I don’t know what to do :-(

    7
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    Mute Paddy C
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    Oct 28th 2023, 9:25 AM

    @R Incognito: very hard one to answer,Im on tracker and my mortgage is up through the roof now for not fixing it and I was also advised to fix it unless I was sure I could keep up with rising payments but if I fix tracker is gone and too long left to go,the only thing I would say is if you could fix it short term at least you wouldnt be after commiting to it too much,a long fixed rate is a nightmare if rates drop, we were on fixed years ago of 5.4 and crash came and rates dropped and losing a fortune had to pay 4,600 to break out of it for the mortgage to drop 400 a month so my advice is if it’s variable try short term fixed especially now that they’re pausing increases

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    Mute
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    Oct 26th 2023, 2:07 PM

    Increasing interest rates to combat this inflation is very close to being useless. Majority of the inflation is a result of the increase in oil prices and from the war in Ukraine affecting supply of various commodities including grain. A serious question for ECB, how does increasing interest rates change oil prices or increase supply of commodities. Wouldn’t it more effective having more constructive negotiation with the Saudis and other oil producers. Also putting a ceiling on the price of basic goods, bread, eggs, pasta, etc. Increasing interest rates was always a possibility of causing recession, plus more unnecessary pain for the less well off.

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    Mute John Moore
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    Oct 26th 2023, 3:43 PM

    Rising interest rates is the only tool that the ECB have to combat inflation. But it can only do so much unless you really want to jack up rates and cause a pretty bad recession. But ECB technocrats act as though tinkering with rates contains all of the answers. It’s mostly for show to look as though they are doing something. About half of the price rises are through companies profiteering. Banks are not passing on nearly enough of the windfall through deposit rates. Whatever way the consumer turns they lose.

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    Mute
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    Oct 26th 2023, 11:00 AM

    I have many money

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    Mute Michael Burke
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    Oct 26th 2023, 1:57 PM

    And few brains cells.

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