SYDNEY: A young British woman died and a man was critically injured when a French national allegedly stabbed three people while saying “Allahu Akbar” at an Australian backpacker’s hostel, police said on Wednesday.

Police are investigating the murder, which occurred late on Tuesday in Home Hill, a rural town south of Townsville in far north Queensland state, but could not say whether the alleged attacker had been radicalised.

The motivations behind the stabbings, which left a 30-year-old British man in a critical condition and a local man with non-life threatening injuries, were still unknown, Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said.

“Initial inquiries indicate that comments which may be construed of being of an extremist nature were made by the alleged offender,” he said.

It is alleged that the suspect used the phrase ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the attack and when arrested by police, he said.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2016