A Co Down woman has spoken of how she sheltered people fleeing from the knifeman who killed six people at a shopping mall in Sydney, Australia.
Leanne Devine, who is originally from Brackenagh, outside Kilkeel, owns a hair salon close to the Bondi Junction centre, where a man stabbed six people to death on Saturday before being shot dead by a police officer.
A number of other people have been taken to hospital for treatment to serious injuries.
The man has since been identified as 40-year-old Joel Cauchi, and New South Wales Police have said they are not treating the attack as terror-related.
Ms Devine told the ABC network how terrified shoppers who had been in the mall when the attack began ran into her salon in a bid to seek safety.
“What they saw was just traumatising,” she said.
“We had lots and lots of people come in, showing us the photographs of what they’d seen.
“They had to sit down, we had to give them water, we had to say: ‘Are you OK?’”
The business owner, who has run the salon for the last 21 years, said herself and staff were “in shock mode” following the attack.
She also spoke of paramedics who attended the mall in the aftermath of the attack to treat victims, and who called into her salon to use the bathroom facilities.
“The paramedics are in tears. They have seen stuff that they have never witnessed before, ever,” she said.
Ms Devine added of the victims: “I feel to sorry for all the families - the five woman and one man who were killed and what their families have to go through now.”
