Four injured in stabbing attack at Murrays Beach, Auckland

Four people were hospitalised with moderate injuries after a man attacked beachgoers, before being apprehended with a crutch.

Five people were stabbed at Murrays Beach north of Auckland. Picture: Google maps

Four have been injured in a “wild” stabbing attack at a family beach in Auckland, New Zealand before the attacker was apprehended by passersby armed with a crutch.

Mothers grabbed their children and fled as the man, armed with a large knife, attacked people at random at Murrays Beach, north of Auckland.

The man was apprehended at a nearby beach by members of the public who hit him with a crutch before police detained him.

The victims were taken to hospital with “moderate injuries,” according to Waitematā District Commander, Superintendent Naila Hassan, who described the incident as “extremely fast-moving”.

Commander Hassan said the man was a local and there was no suggestion the attack was a hate crime. The victims were of different genders and ethnicity, she said.

“I want to acknowledge the traumatic event this would have been for the victims,” Commander Hassan said. “It would have been extremely traumatic for them at the time, and we are making sure that they have the necessary support around them.”

One of the first women the man approached said she ran screaming for help as he chased her. She said he approached her as they passed each other and at first she thought “wanted to chat”.

“I was wearing headphones and went to take the headphones off to talk to him because that’s what I thought he wanted,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, told the NZ Herald.

“He just started running at me. And – fight or flight – I turned away and ran the other way and I looked back and he had a big knife, running at me,” she said.

“I was screaming, calling out for help because he was chasing me with this big knife.”

Other women said they took their children and ran to nearby houses after being warned to flee by other beach goers.

“At first I thought it was a tsunami, or something like because we’re at the beach,” Dianne Hilbourne, who was at the beach with her three year old son, told stuff.co.nz. “We just left everything and ran.”

An eyewitness said he saw two men strike the attacker with a crutch, bringing him to the ground before police arrested him.

The man, who identified himself as “Steve,” told the Herald: “The man more or less lay down, I know he burst out in tears, you could hear him crying. I think the realisation came in.”

The entire incident took just 10 minutes, Commander Hassan said, as she acknowledged the bravery of the people who had stopped the attacker.