New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern will toughen anti-terror laws after Friday’s knife attack in Auckland by a man who was under police surveillance. The Sri Lankan national stabbed seven people in a supermarket. Three of them are still in a critical condition.
The attacker, a 32-year-old Tamil, who arrived in New Zealand in 2011 and sought refugee status, was a known supporter of Islamic State.
Ms Ardern described the stabbings as a “terrorist attack”, said she expected that changes to the country’s counter-terrorism legislation would be backed by parliament by the end of September.
“What happened today was despicable, it was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith.”
— Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand
Read more: New Zealand supermarket stabbing: Government to toughen anti-terror laws
