The opening match of the Women's World Cup in Auckland, New Zealand went ahead as planned Thursday after a shooting hours earlier near the Norwegian team’s hotel left three people dead and six injured.
A gunman opened fire with a pump-action shotgun on the third floor of a building under construction near the hotel housing the Norwegian team in central Auckland Thursday morning, killing two people and injuring six, including a police officer.
Police said the shooter, who is believed to have been an employee at the construction site of the building, and was known to police with a history of domestic violence, was found dead at the site, and that the attack was not directly linked to the World Cup.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the shooting appeared to be the actions of an individual, and there was no risk to national security.
"There was no identified political or ideological motivation for the shooting and therefore no national security risk," Hipkins said during a televised media briefing.
New Zealand banned all military style semi-automatics and other deadly guns after a shooter killed 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch in 2019.
Hipkins said there would be no change to the country’s threat level, and the ninth Women’s World Cup would proceed as planned though with an increased police presence in Auckland.
Extra security was deployed outside the Eden Park stadium for the first of two opening games, between New Zealand and Norway.
Co-hosts Australia play Ireland in front of a sold-out crowd of 70,000 at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
Some home-team matches sold out months in advance in Australia, where women’s football had become more prominent in recent years, even as conditions for female footballers still remain well behind those for men in many countries.
In New Zealand, where sports are dominated by its famous All Blacks rugby team, demand for women’s football has been lower, with tickets remaining for many fixtures.
The French team plays its first match Sunday in Sydney against Jamaica.
(with newswires)
