4 people wounded by man on stabbing rampage in New Zealand: Official

A man wounded four people in a stabbing rampage Thursday in a New Zealand city before bystanders brought him to the ground, authorities said.

Police District Commander Naila Hassan said the suspect in the Auckland attack was in custody.

This was an extremely fast-moving incident, where our police staff responded quickly, apprehended the offender and prevented further harm to our communities, Hassan said.

No motive for the attack was immediately apparent.

New Zealand was the site of two violent stabbing rampages at supermarkets last year. One was considered a terror attack while a judge found no motive could be attached to the other attack.

Last September, a Muslim extremist inspired by the Islamic State group stabbed five people in an Auckland supermarket before police shot and killed him. Three of those he stabbed were critically injured and two other people were also injured in the melee, but all survived.

And in May last year, shoppers and staff at a Dunedin supermarket managed to stop a frenzied man from hurting others after he stabbed four people in a random attack, severely wounding three of them.

The Dunedin attacker, 43-year-old Luke Lambert, was convicted on four counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 13 years in prison.