WELLINGTON: An Islamic State-inspired attacker injured six people in a New Zealand supermarket knife rampage Friday, before being shot dead by undercover police officers who had him under round-the-clock surveillance.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was “gutted” the man, a Sri Lankan national, had managed to carry out his “hateful” assault even though he was on a terror watchlist. She said the man, who arrived in New Zealand in 2011, entered a shopping mall in suburban Auckland and seized a knife from a display before going on a stabbing spree.

Six people were wounded, three critically, in the 60 seconds before surveillance officers opened fire.

New Zealand police kill ‘extremist’ who stabbed six in supermarket

Terrified shoppers fled for the exits and video footage shot by bystanders showed men running toward the incident before a barrage of shots rang out.

The attack has stirred painful memories of the Christchurch mosques shootings in March 2019, New Zealand’s worst terror atrocity, when a white supremacist gunman murdered 51 Muslim worshippers and severely wounded another 40.