Sydney:

Four people including a police officer were injured in a stabbing attack in Sydney early on Sunday, police said, the latest in a series of knife assaults in Australia’s biggest city this year.

A man who ran from the scene has been taken into custody, police said in a statement. There is no ongoing threat to people in Sydney, said New South Wales state Police Minister Yasmin Catley.

Police said no one was killed in the attack, which came after a “domestic-related” incident in a car that collided with another vehicle in the southern suburb of Engadine.

The attacker “was armed with what we believe to be a boxcutter,” police superintendent Donald Faulds said in a televised press conference.

Aerial footage of the scene by the Australian Broadcasting Corp showed two crashed cars cordoned off with police tape.

Sydney, a city of 5 million, has seen a spate of knife attacks this year, prompting the New South Wales government to toughen its knife laws. The state parliament passed laws in June giving police electronic metal-detecting scanners to check people without a warrant at shopping centres, sporting venues and public transport stations.

In April, six people were killed and 12 injured in a knife attack at a mall in Sydney’s Bondi area.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Sydney:

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed as a hero Pakistani security guard Faraz Tahir, killed in Sydney while trying to stop a mass stabbing attack, in remarks delivered on Friday at a funeral attended by hundreds.

Tahir, who would have turned 31 on Wednesday, was on the first day of his job when he became one of six killed this month during the stabbing spree at a busy mall in beachside Bondi.

“Running toward danger, to protect people he had never even met, without doubt, he helped save lives that day,” Albanese said. “Without question, Faraz Tahir died a hero.”

The ceremony was held before a crowd gathered outside the city’s Baitul Huda mosque, under a banner that read “Love for all – hatred for none”.

Tahir arrived in Australia as a refugee from Pakistan, according to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community of Australia, to which he belonged.

Fellow security guard Muhammad Taha, injured while trying to stop the attacker, attended in a wheelchair after being released from hospital for the ceremony. He was the last to speak with Tahir as they ran towards the scene of the attack.

“We were trying to save people at that time and his last words were ‘Let’s find out what’s going on,’ so we rushed towards that area,” he said in comments reported by the Guardian newspaper.

Tahir’s brother, Mudasar Bashir, told reporters the two had spoken the evening before and promised to call the next day. They never spoke again.

“Even until now, we couldn’t believe that he’s no more,” he said at the funeral. “We are very proud of him because … Islam, our religion, says that if you save even one human, you save all of humanity.”

Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old who suffered mental health issues, killed five women and Tahir in the mall on April 13 before being shot dead by police.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)