Woman killed in stabbing on Auckland bus; police ‘pulling out all the stops’ to find suspect

Thursday, 24 October 2024

Police Inspector Daniel Meade said police were searching for a violent offender following a serious assault on an Onehunga bus.

A woman was stabbed on a bus in Auckland on Wednesday and left with critical injuries.

She was taken to hospital but died a few hours later.

The incident happened on Wednesday afternoon in the suburb of Onehunga.

Police were looking for the attacker and a weapon on Thursday morning.

Police are still looking for the man who fatally stabbed a woman on a bus in Auckland on Wednesday afternoon.

Police investigate the scene around where a bus was when a person was attacked on it.

Police said they were called to an attack in Onehunga about 2.30pm. They said the woman, believed to have been a passenger on the bus, had been stabbed repeatedly in the upper body.

They said the victim was taken to Auckland Hospital in a critical condition but later died.

A police helicopter was flying over the suburb overnight and police were still working in the area on Thursday morning. But police have not said if the suspect had been found.

Inspector Daniel Meade said on Wednesday a weapon used in the assault had not been recovered, but the suspect had been identified from CCTV footage.

A large police operation to find the person was underway, with several streets in Onehunga closed off on Wednesday.

A person has been assaulted on a bus in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga

Police Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ on Thursday that there was no clear motivation for the attack.

He told Morning Report it was an ongoing investigation and the priority would be to locate the offender and lay charges.

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The bus where the assault took place was towed away from Church St on Wednesday evening for further police examination.

Police making enquiries around the scene of the attack.

“Police are following up all leads that have become available to us and pulling out all the stops to locate this person as quickly as we can,” Meade said.

There was no information to suggest that the general public were at any risk from the perpetrator involved in the assault, he said.

A person has died after being attacked on a bus in the Auckland suburb of Onehunga. The victim was taken to Auckland Hospital in critical condition but later died. Police are still searching for the offender.

An Auckland Transport spokesperson told Stuff they were assisting police with their enquiries, and that the incident took place on a number 74 bus service.

“We are working with our bus operator to provide support to the bus driver who witnessed this incident as well as our other customers who were onboard at the time,” they said.

“The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and bus drivers is our top priority and we are working with police and our bus operator to fully understand this afternoon’s incident,” AT said.

Speaking to 1News, Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Ward councillor Josephine Bartley called the stabbing unacceptable.

There was shock and worry in the community after the attack, she said.

“That's not us as a society, and we don't want people to be scared to continue with their lives. Otherwise, no one's going to leave the house.”

Mitchell posted on X (formerly Twitter) that his thoughts and prayers were with the family of the victim, calling the assault a “senseless homicide”.

Mitchell added that this “gratuitous violence has no place in our communities”.