Police shoot man dead in Brisbane after tourist stabbing

Queensland Police have shot dead a man that stabbed an overseas tourist in Brisbane’s CBD.

Police officers were called to a disturbance on Sunday following reports a man armed with a knife had stabbed another man in Mary Street.

It is understood that the attacker, who was reportedly known to police and thought to have been aged in his 20s, was still wielding the weapon when officers shot him outside the Westin Hotel.

Onlookers told ABC News the man was shot “at least 10 times”.

Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming, who said police did not believe the attack to be racially motivated, told reporters it was believed the offender acted alone.

“But the specifics of that I’m not going to go into at the moment,” Fleming told reports, according to ABC News. “I don’t have any information that confirms or makes this an active CT [counter-terrorism] investigation.

“But I want to stress the fact … all the information to us at the moment is that this person was acting alone, came into the city alone, did those actions alone, but we just don’t take anything for granted.”

A police statement said it would be alleged “the man charged at officers and was critically injured when police returned fire”. The man was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Superintendent Fleming explained the man confronted two overseas tourists, a man and a woman, with a knife.

The male tourist, 26, was struck in the face and suffered a broken nose, and was later transported to hospital with facial and back injuries.

Fleming said the male tourist received a single stitch and had since been released.

“The advice we have is he [the attacker] confronted these people on the street and things escalated,” he said.

“This is just two people — visitors to our city — who’ve been confronted by a man in a terrifying incident for them and the police officers involved.

“They are shaken, this was a very rapid series of events, this was a very confronting situation for them and this has all happened very quickly.”

According to a further statement from Fleming, the tourists described the man’s behaviour as strange.

“It’s my understanding that what the police were confronted with today was a life-endangering situation to them and I’m very pleased that they are alive, but it is tragic that a young man has died,” he said, as reported by ABC News.

A Queensland Police statement said the matter is under investigation by Ethical Standards Command on behalf of the State Coroner.

That investigation is subject to oversight by the Crime and Corruption Commission.

Featured image credit: iStock.com/Fedorovekb

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