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It was a perfect mid-autumn day with blue skies and temperatures approaching nearly 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the kind of weather that has made Bondi on Australia’s eastern coast one of the most sought after addresses in the world.

But by the end of the day, any sense of normalcy had been shattered. At a shopping mall a mile from the beach in the Sydney suburbs, a knife-wielding attacker stabbed nearly 20 people, including a 9-month-old girl. Six of the victims, including the girl’s mother, have died, and about a dozen others were being treated at hospitals. The attacker — whose motives remain unclear — was shot and killed by a police officer.

It was one of the deadliest mass killings in Australia in recent decades and has left many in shock, questioning how a tragedy of this magnitude could occur in a country known for its relative safety.

The police on Sunday were combing through a crime scene spanning several floors of the sprawling Westfield Bondi Junction mall. They were also interviewing hundreds of witnesses to Saturday’s attack, trying to piece together the chronology of a rampage that punctured a sense of security in this wealthy suburb of Australia’s largest city.

Portraits of the victims, all but one of whom were women, began to emerge. They included a first-time mother, a Pakistani security guard who had fled persecution, and a young fashion employee, according to statements from those who knew them.