Updated ,first published
Witnesses have described a terrifying scream, pedestrians sprinting from danger and others rushing to help bleeding victims after a random stabbing attack that left one person dead and two in a critical condition in western Sydney.
Police were called to Merrylands Road, Merrylands, just after 10am on Tuesday, with witnesses saying a man had stabbed multiple people with a large kitchen knife before fleeing on foot.
The rampage spread from one end of the block to another, with the crime scene spanning about 50 metres.
CCTV footage published by Nine News showed the man running along a path next to the train tracks shortly after the alleged attacks. Terrified, a woman pushing a pram in front of him started running to get away before he passed her.
One attack occurred in or outside Bina’s Nepalese grocery store on Merrylands Road, just doors down from Granville MP Julia Finn’s office. Medical equipment and police forensic markers were dotted along the street.
Paramedics treated three people. A man aged between 30 and 40 years old died at the scene. He is yet to be formally identified. Two others, a woman aged 47 and a man aged 22, were taken to hospital in a critical condition.
Joseph Roussini, 59, called Triple Zero after hearing a woman “screaming for her life”.
“I could see a man and a lady coming out of the shop, and the man was holding the lady by the neck, and there was blood pouring out of her neck, and he was trying to stop the bleeding,” he said.
“[She] was in a terrible state.”
He said bystanders rushed to help and every “second felt like a year” waiting for paramedics.
One shop owner said he heard a scream and saw people “sprinting” down the street. Another woman, who asked not to be identified, said she saw dark police cars cruising along the street shortly after the incident, with helicopters circling above.
“It was really harrowing,” she said. “I don’t feel safe.”
None of the victims were related to the others.
Riot police scoured the area, marching through gardens and knocking on doors.
A 25-year-old man known to police for mental health incidents was arrested in a backyard on nearby Smythe Street following a nearly 40-minute manhunt. He was taken to Granville Police Station and is expected to be charged later on Tuesday.
Footage released by NSW Police showed the man, handcuffed and barefoot, being led from the police wagon into the station.
Superintendent Simon Glasser said police quickly locked down the area, but it took around 40 minutes to locate the alleged offender.
Glasser said the man was known to police for petty crime and a number of mental health incidents.
“It was highly confronting. It’s a horrible offence to have taken place,” Glasser said.
Police also located a kitchen knife with a 20-30 centimetre blade near the scene which they believe was used in the attack.
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