The eyes of world's media are focused on Auckland today after a shooting in the city's CBD killed two and injured six this morning - hours out from the FIFA Women's World Cup kicking off.
The shooting, at a Queen Street construction site, comes less than 12 hours before tonight's opener between the Football Ferns and Norway at Eden Park.
Norway, who are currently gearing up to play, are staying at M Social, just 400 metres down the road from the 1 Queen St location of the incident.
“Everyone probably woke up quite quickly when the helicopter hovered outside the hotel window, and a large number of emergency vehicles arrived,” Norwegian captain Maren Mjelde said in a statement.
“At first, we didn't know what was going on, but eventually, there were updates on TV and the local media.”
Chris Hipkins said police and ambulance officers put themselves in danger to keep others safe. (Source: 1News)
The team “felt safe the whole time”, and said everyone “seems calm” as they prepared for tonight's match.
Police found the shooter dead in an elevator after attempting to communicate with him.
The gunman's rampage took place just down the road from the FIFA fan zone at The Cloud, where fans were just starting to pack in to celebrate the start of the tournament.
In a statement, a police spokesperson said the opening of the Fan Festival at The cloud has been delayed until later today.
It was originally planned to open at midday but has been pushed back to 2pm.
It has cast a dark cloud over the tournament, which is set to be an exciting event for the country to enjoy.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said the incident was a terrible thing to have happened.
Speaking to media late this morning Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said "there are a lot of eyes on Auckland" with the World Cup kicking off.
The PM said the tournament will proceed as planned.
New Zealand Football said it was shocked by the incident.
A witness of this morning's shooting in the Auckland CBD believes the gunman worked at the building he attacked. (Source: 1News)
"We can confirm that all of the Football Ferns team and staff are safe but we will not be able to comment further while details are still emerging."
Because of its close proximity to kick-off, the incident has received widespread attention from international media.
Norwegian news site Dagbladet ran the headline “Alvorlig hendelse i VM-byen (Serious incident in the WC city).”
“A large police operation is underway a few hundred metres away from the player hotel of the Norwegian national team, but they should not be directly affected," it reported.
“Local police confirm that several people have died after what they describe as a ‘significant incident’.”
The BBC headlined their story as “Deadly shooting in Auckland hours before Women's World Cup.”
Among other world media report, USA Today wrote: “Deadly shooting in Auckland, hours before World Cup opens in New Zealand city.”
"Gunman kills two in Auckland, but Women's World Cup will proceed as planned, says New Zealand PM," was The Guardian headline.
"2 Dead in New Zealand Shooting as World Cup Is Set to Begin," the New York Times said.
FIFA is expected to make comment about the shooting later today.
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