New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the recent incident in a West Auckland supermarket as a terrorist attack and confirmed that six people were injured.
Earlier, New Zealand police fatally shot a man armed with a knife who was attacking people in a supermarket.
"I want to confirm that six people were injured, it was a violent attack," said Ardern, quoted by the digital newspaper Newshub, speaking at a press conference.
"What happened today was despicable, it was hateful, it was wrong," she said.
Ardern said that the attacker was a Sri Lankan national who had been inspired by the Daesh* ideology.
The man was killed within 60 seconds of initiating the attack, the prime minister added.
Ardern revealed that the extremist was a migrant who arrived in New Zealand from Sri Lanka in 2011 and since 2016 has attracted the interest of national security forces, for reasons that she did not specify.
Three critically injured victims and another in serious condition were transferred to Auckland City Hospital. One person with moderate injuries was admitted to Waitakere Hospital and another, in the same condition, to Middlemore Hospital.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia