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A BRAVE mum’s final act of love to save her baby after they were both stabbed in a Sydney shopping centre has shattered hearts across the world.
Two brothers told of how the hero threw her injured baby to them – out of sheer desperation – as she began to succumb to her injuries.
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The 38-year-old mum, who is yet to be identified, is one of six people killed by a knife-wielding assailant at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre on Saturday afternoon.
After both she and her baby were stabbed, she threw her little one to two nearby men.
One of the men told 9News Sydney: “The baby got stabbed.
“The mum got stabbed and the mum came over with the baby and threw it at me. I was holding the baby, it looked pretty bad.”
His brother said: “He helped with holding the baby and trying to compress the baby and same with the mother, trying to compress the blood from stopping.”
The pair were shopping when they saw the knifeman “run up to the woman with the baby”.
One man said they “ran in” to a store and told the people inside to lock the doors before “the mother came with the baby, bleeding, stabbed”.
He added: “We just kept yelling out to get some clothes, get some shirts and and just help us to compress and stop the baby from bleeding.”
The first brother said: “[The injuries were] very bad. There was a lot of blood on the floor. I hope the baby is all right.”
Eight people were rushed to various hospital facilities across Sydney following the attack, their conditions ranging from serious to critical.
Four women and one man were killed in the shopping centre and another woman, understood to be the baby’s mum, died in hospital.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told media on Saturday night that the baby was in surgery.
The identity of the assailant is yet to be confirmed, although police believe he is a 40-year-old man.
Ms Webb said he is known to law enforcement and police “do not have fears for that person holding an ideation.
She added: “In other words, that it is not a terrorism incident.”
Cops are waiting to formally identify him, as Ms Webb insisted “there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased”.
The knifeman was shot dead by a lone senior police officer, who has been hailed a hero by both Ms Webb and Australian PM Anthony Albanese, after he raised a knife at her.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cook said earlier on Saturday: “She (the inspector) confronted the offender who had moved by this stage to level five, as she continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him.
“He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.”
Ms Webb said the senior officer “showed enormous courage and bravery and she will process that”, adding that she was now “doing well under the circumstances”.
Mr Albanese commended her too, saying she is “certainly a hero”, as well as other Australians for their first instinct being “to help someone else”.
Video showed another brave civilian inside the shopping centre as he came face to face with the armed assailant.
The knifeman was seen walking up an escalator toward a man holding a pole, seemingly poised to use it against the attacker if necessary.
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