SYDNEY -- Police identified Sunday the assailant who stabbed and killed six people at a busy Sydney shopping centre before a police officer fatally shot him.

New South Wales Police said that Joel Cauchi, 40, was responsible for the Saturday afternoon attack at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, in the city鈥檚 eastern suburbs and not far from the world-famous Bondi Beach.

NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters at a media conference on Sunday that Cauchi suffered from yet unspecified mental health issues and police investigators weren鈥檛 treating the attack as terrorism-related.

鈥淲e are continuing to work through the profiling of the offender but very clearly to us at this stage it would appear that this is related to the mental health of the individual involved,鈥� Cooke said.

鈥淭here is still, to this point ... no information we have received, no evidence we have recovered, no intelligence that we have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation - ideology or otherwise,鈥� he added.

The attack at the shopping mall, one of the country鈥檚 busiest and which was a hub of activity on a particularly warm fall afternoon, began around 3:10 p.m. and police were swiftly called.

Six people 鈥� five women and one man, aged between 20 and 55 鈥� were killed in the attack. Another 12 were injured and remain in hospital, including a nine-month-old child whose mother was killed in the attack.

The male victim was a security guard at the shopping centre and was later identified as 30-year-old Faraz Tahir from Pakistan.

According to a written statement Sunday from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Australia, Faraz had been in Australia for a less than a year and was a 鈥渃herished member of our community.鈥�

Video footage taken by a witness showed many people fleeing as a knife-wielding Cauchi ran erratically through the shopping mall and lunging at people.

鈥淲hen I took my footage it, was about 15 seconds maybe before he was shot by the police officer and he鈥檇 already killed a number of people at that point but we didn鈥檛 know and we had no idea what was going on,鈥� said Rohan Anderson, who had entered the shopping center just moments before the attack. "We just saw a person on the level below us, with a knife, running around and you just sit in disbelief that this is happening in Australia, in Bondi,鈥� he said.

Other footage showed a man confronting the attacker on an escalator in the shopping centre by holding what appeared to be a metal pole.

Inspector Amy Scott, who was the first emergency responder on the scene, shot and killed Cauchi.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the officer was 鈥渃ertainly a hero鈥� whose actions had saved many more lives.

鈥淭he wonderful inspector who ran into danger by herself and removed the threat that was there to others, without thinking about the risks to herself,鈥� he said.

鈥淲e also see the footage of ordinary Australians putting themselves in harm鈥檚 way in order to help their fellow citizens. That bravery was quite extraordinary that we saw yesterday,鈥� he added.

In a written statement later Sunday, Cauchi鈥檚 family said they were devastated by Saturday鈥檚 events and they had 鈥渘o issue鈥� with Scott shooting their son, saying "she was only doing her job to protect others鈥�.

鈥淛oel鈥檚 actions were truly horrific, and we are still trying to comprehend what has happened,鈥� the statement read. 鈥淗e has battled with mental health issues since he was a teenager.鈥�

Throughout Sunday, people placed a large number of floral tributes for the victims outside the now-shuttered shopping centre. Police say it will remain an active crime scene for days.