{"id":25716,"date":"2023-07-20T02:17:10","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T06:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=25716"},"modified":"2023-07-20T02:17:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T06:17:10","slug":"two-shot-dead-in-new-zealand-hours-before-womens-soccer-world-cup-kicks-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/07\/20\/two-shot-dead-in-new-zealand-hours-before-womens-soccer-world-cup-kicks-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Two shot dead in New Zealand hours before Women’s Soccer World Cup kicks off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people have been killed in a shooting in Auckland, New Zealand, just hours before the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off in the city.<\/p>\n

Police said the gunman, 24, also died following the rampage at a construction site, close to a hotel where several teams, including the Norway squad, have been staying.<\/p>\n

Officers said the man opened fire with a pump-action shotgun at around 7.20am and made his way through a building on the site, until he was cornered by police in an elevator shaft on its upper floors.<\/p>\n

It was unclear if he was shot by police or killed himself.<\/p>\n

At least five people were also injured, including a police officer who was rushed to hospital in a critical condition but is now said to be stable.<\/p>\n

Several construction workers managed to hide from the gunman during the shooting and were discovered afterwards by officers.<\/p>\n

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the shooter had been employed at the building site and that “his presence at the site this morning was connected with that work.”<\/p>\n

He also confirmed that the man had been wearing an ankle bracelet monitor and was the subject of a home detention sentence, reportedly for domestic violence, but had been granted an exemption to go to work.<\/p>\n

“Thankfully many people were able to escape the building, but I know that for those who hid or remained trapped in the building, this was a terrifying experience,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\"Armed<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Norway captain Maren Mjelde said people were woken by the sound of a helicopter hovering outside the team’s hotel.<\/p>\n

She said: “We felt safe the whole time.<\/p>\n

“FIFA has a good security system at the hotel, and we have our own security officer in the squad. Everyone seems calm and we are preparing as normal for the game tonight.”<\/p>\n

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\"Members<\/div>
Members of the Philippines Women’s World Cup squad were seen leaving their hotel following the shooting nearby. (Image: AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shooting ‘isolated’<\/strong><\/p>\n

New Zealand’s Prime Minster Chris Hipkins said there was “no wider security threat” and vowed that the tournament would go ahead as planned.<\/p>\n

He told reporters: “Clearly with the FIFA World Cup kicking off this evening, there are a lot of eyes on Auckland.<\/p>\n

“The government has spoken to FIFA organizers this morning and the tournament will proceed as planned. I want to reiterate that there is no wider national security threat. This appears to be the action of one individual.”<\/p>\n

Acting Police Superintendent Sunny Patel said: “Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, the male has contained himself within the elevator shaft and our staff have attempted to engage with him.<\/p>\n

“Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later.”<\/p>\n

Police also described the shooting as “isolated”.<\/p>\n

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\"Armed<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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An investigation into what happened has been launched.<\/p>\n

It comes as\u00a0New Zealand<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and Norway are set to\u00a0open the tournament<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on Thursday at Auckland’s Eden Park stadium.<\/p>\n

Officials said security would be increased at the venue following the shooting.<\/p>\n

The match kicks off at 7pm local time, which is 8am UK time.<\/p>\n

The month-long, 32-team tournament is being co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, which will host the final on 20 August.<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0\"Sky<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two people have been killed in a shooting in Auckland, New Zealand, just hours before the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off in the city. Police said the gunman, 24, also died following the rampage […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,6],"tags":[6767,2860,3815],"class_list":{"0":"post-25716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-auckland","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-shootings","13":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25716"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25719,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25716\/revisions\/25719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}