Woman killed in Whanganui stabbing incident remembered

The scene on Wicksteed St on Tuesday. Photo/ Lewis Gardner

Three remain in hospital after the multiple stabbings which killed one woman in central Whanganui on Tuesday.

A 36-year-old man has been charged with murder and five charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

He has interim name suppression and has been remanded in custody to appear in the High Court on February 11 and a psychiatric report to test his sanity is pending.

Three of the stabbing victims are still in hospital in a stable condition while the other two have been discharged.

Family and friends of the woman killed, Miriama Raukawa, have taken to social media to remember her.

"God please help me threw this terrorible pain im feeling i wish you could take it away [sic]," one wrote.

"i love you mum ... this is not ok ... my heart is with you and all our family ill cu as soon as i get to wangas love you all [sic]."

The stabbings appear to stem from a dispute between some of the three flats into which a Wicksteed St property is divided.

The Whanganui Chronicle understands there was a dispute between those flats, which led to the stabbings.

Whanganui police area commander Nigel Allan said police were looking for no one else in relation to the matter. Photo/ Lewis Gardner

Witness accounts

A worker from medical centre Te Oranganui, who did not want to be named, told the Whanganui Chronicle her colleague witnessed the stabbings.

Te Oranganui nurses and a doctor ran to the aid of the victims.

"When I got there, there was one lying on the ground," she said. "She'd been stabbed, it was bad."

The worker said two other people who had been stabbed were walking around.

"You could see it. [The man] was holding his neck and blood was pouring out. On his back, you could see where he'd been cut.

There were three upturned supermarket trolleys within the carpark cordon.

An eye witness who was in the New World carpark at the time of the attack told RNZ a woman came rushing towards the supermarket.

She said the woman had obvious stab wounds and was calling for help while a man walked calmly behind her with ripped clothes and holding a knife.

The woman cried out that a man had a knife and that he was stabbing people. The witness told an RNZ reporter she could see two others with injuries; one woman with blood pouring out of her head and a man holding his neck with a stab wound.

She then saw police arrive and order a man with the knife to stop and get on the ground. He was then handcuffed.

Another witness told Stuff he was putting groceries into his car when he heard cries for help from one of the injured women.

He said the woman had cuts to her arm and face and that she told him of others who were attacked by a man with a knife.

Another man approached from Liverpool St with a stab wound to his neck and told those gathered there was another woman who was badly injured.

Emergency services were called to the incident at 4.20pm.