A victim of the Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing attack in Sydney has revealed for the first time what the attacker said to her during his rampage.
Liya Barko, 35, spoke to Australia's 9News about what happened on Saturday, April 13, when the attacker took six people's lives and injured dozens more.
"I think he just looked at me and decided in that moment [to stab me]," Barko said. She then looked at her hand and realised she was bleeding.
That's when the attacker, Joel Cauchi, said to her "catch you".
Ukrainian-born Barko told 9News she remembered Cauchi looking at her after plunging a knife into her ribs, and spoke of the fear of other shoppers.
"Some were crying, they were scared for their lives also.”
A man eventually came to help take Barko inside a store, and to stop the bleeding.
“I would like to see him again and at least give him a hug, because I don't know how I would have managed everything without him in that moment,” she told 9News.
Barko was taken to hospital in a critical condition and was released from hospital just last week.
She said her doctor was elated she survived.
"I [have] never seen someone really so happy. I thought: 'Why is he so happy? What's wrong with this man?'"
On the day of the attack, Barko needed to buy a volleyball for her first volleyball lesson, so she went to Westfield Bondi Junction.
But she questioned why Cauchi, believed to have been suffering from mental illnesses, was there that day.
"Why a schizophrenic man was there outside with a knife, making a normal Saturday afternoon, and [turning] it into hell."
But she told 9News she still loves Australia.
"Of course!"
New South Wales police inspector Amy Scott was the lone officer who confronted Cauchi and shot him dead.
The six people killed in the attack were Ashlee Good, 38; Dawn Singleton, 25; Pikria Darchia, 55; Jade Young, 47; Yixuan Cheng, 27; and Faraz Tahir, 30.
Following the fatal stabbing, some friends and family of some of the victims have called for more support for those with mental health problems.
