Women’s World Cup Begins With Host Nations in Opening Games
At least two individuals had been killed and 5 others injured after a gunman stormed a constructing beneath building with a shotgun in Auckland, New Zealand, early Thursday, hours earlier than the primary soccer match of the Women’s World Cup was scheduled to start within the metropolis.
The gunman was later killed, the police mentioned at a news convention on Thursday afternoon. They additionally mentioned {that a} police officer was amongst these injured and he was taken to a hospital in crucial situation, however that his situation had stabilized.
The authorities haven’t formally recognized the gunman, however the police mentioned he was believed to have been 24 years previous and had labored on the building web site the place the taking pictures occurred.
The police commissioner, Andrew Coster, mentioned that the gunman’s motive was believed to have been “connected to his work at the site.” He was beneath a house detention order however had permission to be on the building web site. He was recognized to police as a result of he had a home violence historical past, Mr. Coster mentioned, including that there had additionally been “some indications of mental health history.”
He didn’t possess a firearms license for the shotgun he used, the authorities mentioned.
The New Zealand Herald additionally reported that he appeared earlier than an area courtroom in March on costs together with assaulting a lady and injuring with intent to injure, and had been ordered to put on an digital monitoring ankle bracelet.
The taking pictures occurred as groups from New Zealand and Norway had been set to play at 7 p.m. native time at Eden Park Stadium, about three miles from the location of the taking pictures. Several World Cup groups and plenty of followers are staying in Auckland’s central enterprise district, and the taking pictures occurred very near Norway’s workforce resort and close to a fan competition arrange for the event.
The United States workforce, which is able to play its first sport of the event in Auckland towards Vietnam in two days, can also be staying within the space.
“Regarding the incident in downtown Auckland, all of our USWNT players and staff are accounted for and safe,” U.S. Soccer mentioned in an announcement, referring to the United States ladies’s nationwide workforce. “Our security team is in communication with local authorities and we are proceeding with our daily schedule.”
The New Zealand Police started receiving stories of an individual firing a gun inside the development web site about 7:22 a.m. native time, Mr. Coster mentioned.
The police mentioned after an armed man entered the high-rise constructing — which was occupied by dozens of building staff — on decrease Queen Street, he opened fireplace on the third ground, and made his means by way of the 21-story constructing, taking pictures as he went.
Passers-by and commuters heard the volley of gunshots throughout the morning rush hour. Armed cops and automobiles swarmed the world, and the authorities shut down components of town.
The taking pictures befell in a busy downtown space crowded with workplace buildings and inns throughout the road from a ferry terminal on town’s waterfront.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, mentioned at a news convention that the shooter had been armed with a pump-action shotgun and that it appeared he had acted alone.
Within minutes, scores of cops carrying automated weapons descended on the location, warning individuals to take cowl and ushering them out of the world. Streets had been closed in a two-block space, and a police helicopter hovered overhead. Officers pursued the gunman to the higher flooring, and as soon as there, an alternate of gunfire — audible on the road beneath the tower — ensued.
The police confronted the gunman in an elevator shaft the place he had barricaded himself, and tried to have interaction with him, the police mentioned.
“The offender fired at police, injuring an officer,” the police mentioned. “Shots were exchanged, and the offender was later found deceased.”
Mr. Coster mentioned he was uncertain if the gunman had been killed by the police.
Mr. Hipkins mentioned the gunman had made his means towards the elevator, and that was the place his physique was later discovered.
Construction staff, lots of whom hid within the constructing throughout the taking pictures, had been launched hours later, and the police cleared the constructing.
Mr. Hipkins mentioned the Women’s World Cup would proceed as deliberate. FIFA, soccer’s world governing physique and the organizer of the event, mentioned its high leaders had communicated with the New Zealand authorities and that the group was “in constant contact with the participating teams affected by this incident.”
The mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, mentioned in a put up on Twitter: “This is a scary situation for Aucklanders on their Thursday morning commute to work. Please stay at home, avoid travel into the city centre.”
Norway’s gamers had been all of their resort throughout the taking pictures; some had been nonetheless asleep, however native news stories mentioned just a few had come down for breakfast in a eating room simply off the bottom ground foyer. As the police moved to shut off entry to the world across the taking pictures, safety guards requested members of the Norway delegation to remain contained in the resort, in response to the president of Norway’s soccer federation, Lise Klaveness.
“Everything is calm in the Norwegian squad,” Halvor Lea, a spokesman for the Norway ladies’s workforce, mentioned in an announcement. “Preparations are going as normal.”
In one other assertion, Maren Mjelde, the captain of the Norway workforce, mentioned many gamers almost certainly had woken as much as the sound of a helicopter exterior the window of their resort and the emergency automobiles that had arrived out entrance.
“We felt safe the whole time,” she mentioned.
This was the primary main taking pictures in New Zealand for the reason that nation banned most semiautomatic rifles in 2019, after 51 individuals had been killed when a white supremacist opened fireplace on Muslims praying in two mosques in Christchurch.
Days after that taking pictures, Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister on the time, introduced a brief ban on most semiautomatic weapons, and a monthslong gun buyback and amnesty program started. Later that yr, a sweeping nationwide ban went into impact.
Even earlier than then, gun possession was comparatively low in New Zealand, and gun violence is taken into account uncommon. But in 1997, six individuals had been killed and 4 others injured within the North Island city of Raurimu.
And in 1990, a gunman within the small seaside township of Aramoana killed 13 individuals and injured three others earlier than he was shot lifeless by the police. The shootings led to a 1992 modification to the rules on military-style semiautomatic weapons.
Juliet Macur and Andrew Das reported from Auckland, New Zealand, and Yan Zhuang from Sydney, Australia. Tariq Panja contributed reporting from Sydney.
Source web site: www.nytimes.com
