Friday June 15, 2018
A member of the bomb disposal unit inspects a bag belonging to the Malmesbury mosque attacker on 14 June 2018. Picture: Cindy Archillies/EWN
The Somali Community Board of South Africa claims the man behind a mosque attack in Malmesbury had a history of mental illness.
Police have confirmed a Somali national was behind the fatal attack on Thursday morning.
He was shot dead in a stand-off with police after stabbing to death two worshippers and wounding two others.
The Somali community board’s chairperson Amir Sheikh says the attacker was an informal trader in Bellville.
Sheikh says the identity of the man has been verified by its office in the Western Cape.
“The one thing that we have on record and we know, while we leave everything to the law enforcement, is that the assailant is a Somali national, somebody with a history of bipolar psychosis, mentally unstable and was on medication when the incident happened.”
Eyewitness News has been unable to verify whether Hawks investigators are perusing this information.