The 9th Women’s World Cup opened on Thursday with a shooting near the Norwegian team’s hotel in Auckland, the country’s largest city, that left three dead and six injured, reported Reuters.
The shooter was among the dead, police said, as the risk of danger posed by the incident as of this report had passed. New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins followed up with assurances that there was no threat to national security.
He said emergency personnel went to the city’s central business area just after 7 a.m. local time Thursday, following reports of a guy armed with a pump action shotgun opening fire on a construction site.
On a more upbeat note, the crowd of 42,137 broke the previous attendance record for a women’s international soccer match set by the host country.
Following the shooting, authorities ramped up police and security presence outside the stadium.