The parents of the Sydney stabbings attacker have said they are “extremely sorry” after their son killed six people at a mall in Bondi.

Joel Cauchi, 40, roamed through the busy Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday with a large knife, killing six people and injuring 12 others, including a nine-month old baby.

He was shot and killed by Inspector Amy Scott, who confronted him alone on the fifth floor after a pursuit through the mall.

Sydney Opera House is illuminated with a black ribbon as part of the national day of mourning following the stabbing deaths of several people at a shopping mall in Sydney’s East on 13 April.

Police shot and killed the assailant, Joel Cauchi, during his knife attack in the Westfield Bondi Junction mall on Saturday near world-famous Bondi Beach. He killed six people and injured a baby.

Police have ruled out terrorism and said the 40-year-old had a history of mental illness.

Rachel Riley has said she is “sorry” if a racist post she shared about the Sydney shopping centre attack was “misunderstood”.

The Countdown star, who once called social media a “cesspit of hate”, is facing calls to be sacked by Channel 4 after falsely suggesting the fatal incident was linked to a rise in support for Palestine.

Six people were killed in the attack, which police said was carried out by Joel Cauchi of Queensland. After news of the stabbing surfaced, Riley wrote: “For six months now, people have been out on our streets proudly calling for the ‘Intifada Revolution’. If you want to know what ‘Globalised Intifada’ looks like, see the Sydney Mall.”

The owner of a knife-sharpening business in Queensland told Guardian Australia that Sydney attacker Joel Cauchi had asked about sharpening two “everyday knives” about three years ago.

The business owner said they thought the request was “weird” as “he wasn’t a chef or a butcher”.

They added: “He goes, ‘oh no, I just do a bit of dabbling in the backyard with the knives and I use them every day’.”

In a shock attack that has rattled Australia, six people were stabbed to death and several others were injured in a knife attack at a popular Sydney shopping mall.

Emergency services rushed to the scene at 3:30pm local time on Saturday as terrifying reports were made of a lone knifeman indiscriminately targeting members of the public.

Videos have since emerged of the attacker, identified as Joel Cauchi, wearing a rugby league shirt and carrying a large blade, with shoppers fleeing in panic.

The attacker’s father, Andrew Cauchi, told reporters on Monday he was devastated by the news of the attack and said his son had a long history of mental illness.

“He wanted a girlfriend and he has no social skills and he was frustrated out of his brain,” he said in comments reported by The Australian newspaper.

Mr Cauchi said he had taken five US army knives from Joel when Joel visited him last year as he feared he could get stabbed.

The final victim of the stabbing attack at a Sydney shopping centre has been identified as Chinese student Yixuan Cheng.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that Cheng was one of the six people killed in the knife attack at the Westfield shopping centre at Bondi Junction in the east of the city.

“She was a Chinese national studying here who’s lost her life, along with Ashlee Good, Dawn Singleton, Jade Young, Pikria Darchia and the security guard who lost his life, a refugee who had only been here for a short period of time,” he said in an interview with Triple M radio.

A police officer and several bystanders are being praised for their bravery in rushing towards danger to confront the attacker responsible for fatally stabbing six people at a suburban Sydney shopping centre.

The shopping mall, located near the renowned Bondi Beach and one of the busiest in the country, was bustling with activity on Saturday afternoon when 40-year-old Joel Cauchi used a knife attack five women and one man. He also injured at least a dozen others, including a 9-month-old baby whose mother tragically perished during the assault, before being shot dead by a police officer.

NSW premier Chris Minns said the number would have been far higher if the people had not “cornered and confronted a murderer”.

They showed “what I would call instinctive bravery under terrible circumstances”, he said.

He praised the inspector Amy Scott who shot and killed Cauchi.

“(Scott)… ran towards danger and showed professionalism and bravery and without a shadow of a doubt, saved many, many lives in the last 24 hours,” he said.

Videos have since emerged of the attacker, identified as Joel Cauchi, wearing a rugby league shirt and carrying a large blade, with shoppers fleeing in panic.