The first match of the Women’s World Cup will go ahead as planned after members of the New Zealand and Norway teams, who are to open the tournament at Eden Park on Thursday night, were unaffected by a shooting in Auckland earlier in the day.
Norway are one of a number of teams, including the US, Italy and the Philippines, based in hotels close to the site of the shooting in the city centre, which left three people including the gunman dead and six injured.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said the incident posed no national security threat and confirmed the tournament, which is co-hosted with Australia, would get under way as planned with the first game in Auckland kicking off at 7pm local time.
“Clearly, with the Fifa World Cup kicking off this evening there are a lot of eyes on Auckland,” Hipkins said. “New Zealanders are welcoming people. We are excited about hosting the Fifa World Cup … there is no ongoing risk here. “We will have very active police presence to provide that reassurance.”
Norway’s captain, Maren Mjelde, said she and her teammates felt safe throughout the police operation, which took place on a building site in the early hours of Thursday.
“Everyone probably woke up quite quickly when the helicopter hovered outside the hotel window and a large number of emergency vehicles arrived,” Mjelde said. “At first we didn’t know what was going on, but eventually there were updates on TV and the local media.
“We felt safe the whole time. Fifa has a good security system at the hotel, and we have our own security officer in the squad. Everyone seems calm and we are preparing as normal for the game tonight. Then we may have to adapt if there are any instructions from the authorities.”
Italy’s training was delayed as players could not get out of their hotel, while the US team were all accounted for and were proceeding with their daily schedule.
“US Soccer extends its deepest condolences to the families of the victims who were killed in the shooting in downtown Auckland today,” a team statement from USWNT read. “We are saddened by the inexcusable loss of life to gun violence, and our thoughts are with the people of Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau and Aotearoa New Zealand.”
The opening of Fifa’s Fan festival, at a nearby location, was delayed. Former New Zealand international Maia Jackson was on the site and said the incident was “pretty scary”.
“They pushed us to the back of the crowd where we are and we’re just trying to keep sane,” she told the NZ Herald. “There’s lots of security and lots of uncertainty.”
New Zealand Football said it was “shocked” by the incident.
“We can confirm that all of the Football Ferns team and staff are safe but we will not be able to comment further while details are still emerging,” a statement said. “Preparations for the game tonight at Eden Park will continue as planned.”
Despite slow ticket sales in New Zealand, a record crowd is expected at Eden Park for the tournament opener, with the host nation’s previous biggest crowd for an international football match likely to be surpassed.
