The stabbing attack in a Sydney shopping center that left at least six people dead on Saturday was Australia’s worst act of mass violence since 2017, when a driver killed six people by deliberately plowing his car into pedestrians in Melbourne.
In a country where mass stabbings and shootings are rare — in part because of strict gun laws — the latest attack has horrified Australians.
Here is how it compares to other acts of mass violence in the country in recent years:
June 2019: A gunman killed four people in a shooting spree across the main business district of Darwin, in the Northern Territory.
January 2017: A man with drug-induced psychosis drove his car into a busy shopping street in Melbourne’s central business district, killing six people and injuring more than 20 others.
December 2014: A gunman held 18 people hostage in a cafe in Sydney’s central business district. The standoff with the police, which lasted 16 hours, ended with the deaths of two hostages and the gunman. The authorities later labeled it a terrorist attack.
November 2011: Fourteen people died when a nurse set fire to a nursing home in Quakers Hill, near Sydney.
April 1996: Australia’s worst mass shooting occurred at Port Arthur, Tasmania, when a gunman killed 35 people. Just weeks later, the country’s leaders brought in strict gun laws.
