SYDNEY – A French man shouting the Arabic phrase
"Allahu akbar" stabbed a British woman to death and wounded two men
in an attack at a hostel in northeast Australia, police said Wednesday.
The
29-year-old suspect did not have any known links to the Islamic State group and
appeared to have acted alone, Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve
Gollschewski said. Police were trying to determine whether the man had been
motivated by extremism, or something else.
"While
this information will be factored into the investigation, we are not ruling out
any motivations at this early stage, whether they be political or
criminal," Gollschewski told reporters in the Queensland state capital of
Brisbane. "Investigators will also consider whether mental health or drug
misuse factors are involved in this incident."
The attack
took place Tuesday night at a hostel in the town of Home Hill, south of
Townsville in northern Queensland. A 21-year-old British woman was found dead
at the scene and a 30-year-old British man was hospitalized in critical
condition.
A local man was treated and released for injuries. A dog was also
fatally wounded in the attack.
The man, a
French national visiting Australia, shouted "Allahu akbar" — the
Arabic phrase meaning "God is great" — both during the attack and
while being arrested by police, Gollschewski said. He has not yet been charged,
but police weren't looking for any other suspects related to the incident.
Police were
treating the attack as a homicide, rather than a terrorism-related incident,
Gollschewski said.
"The
associated issues of what motivated him and whether that has any relevance to
radicalization is something we're going to explore fully, but we won't know for
some time whether that's the case," he said.
The man had
been in Australia on a temporary visa for about a year, Gollschewski said.
Australian
Federal Police Commander Sharon Cowden said her office was speaking to
international police agencies about the attack.
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