Detective Acting Superintendent Heath McQueen said the woman had been grocery shopping and was near her car when the random attack took place. Photo: 123RF
By Victoria Pengilley for ABC News
A 70-year-old woman has died after being stabbed in the chest in front of her granddaughter during a violent robbery at a busy shopping centre west of Brisbane.
Police were called to the car park of the Redbank Plains Shopping Village around 6.30pm on Saturday evening in response to reports of a serious assault.
They were confronted with a horrific scene when they arrived to treat the woman, who a witness said was lying in a pool of blood.
Detective Acting Superintendent Heath McQueen said the woman had been grocery shopping and was near her car when the random attack took place.
"It's an abhorrent, cowardly violent attack on a 70-year-old grandmother in front of her six-year-old granddaughter," he said.
He said police were reviewing CCTV vision of the incident and interviewing witnesses.
The scene was extremely confronting for members of the public nearby, he added.
"It's extremely confronting to watch, it's extremely confronting for first-responding officers and bystanders who intervened," he said.
"Many seasoned police, including myself, who reviewed the footage are taken aback by the level of violence."
Redbank Plains local Ademola Afolabi had just arrived at the shopping centre to buy sausages when he heard a young girl cry out for help for her grandmother.
"I followed [the young girl]... I saw a lady in a pool of blood," he said.
Afolabi, who is a medical doctor, said he tried to administer first aid before calling triple zero, but the woman was unresponsive.
"It was too late before I got there," he said. "She was in a pool of blood. Mostly on the left side. Her pants were soaked with blood. Probably bleeding from the chest area. But I didn't move anything. The only contact I had with her was the CPR."
He said the young girl was uninjured but that the incident would "leave a scar on her".
"Just the little girl. Nobody should witness that. I've seen a fair bit of dead people but this is, the whole circumstance around it is just shocking," he said.
Investigations are ongoing, but police said one witness described a male offender of African appearance leaving the scene.
Police are urging anyone with information to come forward.
"Now is the time to step up and come forward and provide us with information about who the offender is," Detective Acting Superintendent McQueen said.
This article was originally published by ABC News.