Updated | Six dead, eight wounded in Sydney knife attack

The number of people killed in mass stabbing at a shopping centre near Bondi Beach in Sydney has risen to six.

Eight other people were injured by the knifeman, one of them a nine-month-old infant who is currently being operated on after being critically wounded, police said. 

A screen grab from a local TV channel reporting from the scene outside Westfield shopping mall in Sydney

The 40 year-old man who carried out the attack was shot dead by police at the scene, NSW Police have confirmed.

Police told a press conference that a lone female police inspector who was nearby had rushed to the shopping centre after hearing of  the multiple stabbings, shooting the perpetrator dead. 

Emergency responders were dispatched to the Westfield Bondi Junction Shopping Centre at around 3.45pm local time on Saturday, evacuating hundreds of people from the Westfield shopping mall in Sydney during the incident.  

Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told a local news station how the attacker was shot dead while trying to attack a police officer.

“She confronted the offender who had moved by this stage to level five as she continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him. He turned, faced her [and] raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased."

Preliminary inquiries indicate that the attacker, who is yet to be identified, was acting alone.