The ISIS supporter who stabbed at least five shoppers in an Auckland supermarket before being shot dead can now be identified.
Witnesses to the horror of the terrorist attack in an Auckland supermarket are still in shock and some say they haven't had any offers of support.
Shaneena Balasundram was at Countdown New Lynn on Friday afternoon when Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen grabbed a knife from the shelves and started attacking shoppers.
She told Newshub she still had "after shock" and hadn't left her house since Friday.
"Not yet, not yet - I probably need some time." She said it was due to the way she felt about people and being in a crowded place.
"I'm just going to stay inside until I get some confidence."
Amit Nand, also speaking to Newshub, said he was at the supermarket just two metres away from where the terrorist attack got shot.
He struggled to get to sleep on Friday night after the attack as the images of watching the man died kept playing through his head. Nand said he had to have a "few drinks" just to get to sleep.
No agencies such as Police or Victim Support had contacted him offering support yet, he said.
However, he was spending time at home with his family including his three children after Friday's event had left him a "bit more paranoid".
Nand said he was at the back of the shop near the freezer section when the attack happened and could hear "really loud screaming".
People were fleeing the store and telling him to run because there was a person stabbing everyone. As he tried to leave, he saw a woman lying on the floor crying for help.
Nand looked up and could see the terrorist with the knife up and two other stabbing victims were also lying on the ground.
Emergency services respond to a terrorist attack at Countdown New Lynn on Friday afternoon which left seven people injured, three critically. Photo / Alex Burton
Balasundram said she was running for her life and eventually took shelter in a storage cupboard with other Countdown staff.
"I couldn't run away. The trollies and chains were all locked and there was a storage room on my right-hand side and I saw a silver handle and I know that someone is there."
She banged on the door and one of the staff members let her in. Other staff members were also hiding and they had to try and calm down one distraught woman because they didn't want the terrorist to hear where they were, she said.
They hid in the cupboard for 10 minutes and could hear the events unfolding including a police dog barking. "In the group, we heard two gunshots and then they said, 'He's down, he's down'," she said.
"That's when we know, my god, he's gone, he's dead, they put him down."
She wanted to thank the Countdown staff including the worker who opened the cupboard to let her in and saved her life. "If the door hadn't opened and she didn't allow me, oh my god - I don't know what would have happened."
Samsudeen was under 24-hour police surveillance and within minutes of his attack, undercover police intervened and shot the man dead just after 2.30pm.
Nand was also grateful to the armed officers. "Thank god he had a gun."
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said today that four of the seven people injured in the attack remain in Auckland Hospital.
Two people were in a critical but stable condition, another was stable, and one was critical but improving.
The Government was now looking at introducing new laws around immigration and terrorism suppression to prevent future similar situations. The laws are expected to be passed this month, Robertson said.
