Ballito Mall management, police working closely after brutal attack
Management at the Ballito Junction Regional Mall on the north coast says counsellors have been brought in to assist employees at the centre following a deadly stabbing incident yesterday.
Patrick Flanagan of Flanagan & Gerard says counsellors were already on site as of yesterday evening.
"Similarly last evening, we sent communication to each and every one of our tenants advising them of the event. In that context, various tenants and our own staff will be offered, and in some cases have been offered, counselling. It's terribly important that these matters are dealt with professionally as they are very traumatc," he says.
Police say a 32-year-old woman who worked at the mall was attacked with a knife in one of the restrooms. A man was arrested at the scene. The exact motive behind the murder is still being investigated.
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Flanagan says the mall is working with police to establish exactly what happened.
"The safety and security procedures that are put in place in these malls are substantial. We have task forces involving our own security and management team together with police and the local authority public safety unit. There are established procedures for these occurrences. We are working very closely with police, we're not in the position to speculate at this point in time on the reasons," he says.
Flanagan says the mall is operating as normal today.
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