A brave witness has told of the terrifying moment he came face-to-face with the “empty eyes” of the man behind the mass stabbing at a busy Sydney shopping centre.

Damien Guerot and friend Silas Despreaux confronted the killer with a bollard before helping lead police to the knife-welding man at Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Two men display extraordinary acts of bravery during Westfield attack

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Queensland man Joel Cauchi, 40, fatally stabbed six people and injured several more, including the baby girl of one of the victims, before he was shot dead by police.

Videos of chaotic scenes inside Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday show people running in terror, while others try to confront the armed 40-year-old.

In one video, Guerot can be seen facing off with Cauchi as he blocks the top of an escalator to stop the attacker approaching.

Guerot threatens him with a shopping centre bollard as Cauchi brandishes his knife.

Guerot said he was at the shopping centre to head to the gym with his friend Silas when they heard someone screaming, “There’s a man stabbing people”.

The pair ran to see what was happening and saw Cauchi heading their way.

Running on adrenaline, the friends came across a bollard and sprung into action.

“We just saw him coming … we were thinking, ‘We need to try to stop him’,” Guerot said.

They followed Cauchi from the floor above until the attacker tried to come up the escalator.

Coming face-to-face with Cauchi for several seconds, Guerot said he was staring into “empty eyes”.

“He wasn’t there,” he said.

“We tried to throw the bollard. We really wanted to stop him.”

Guerot and his friend then followed the crowd outside when they saw inspector Amy Scott arriving and helped lead her to the attacker.

Cauchi lunged at Scott and was shot dead, police said.

While it was confronting to witness, Guerot said it was nothing compared to the horrifying carnage at the hands of Cauchi.

“I saw a guy on the floor with a lot of blood, I saw one girl from the balcony get stabbed,” Guerot said.

“She was just walking, she didn’t do anything.”

Despite his efforts, Guerot does not believe he was a hero.

That title is reserved for Scott, he said.

“She was the hero, she did the job. We just did what we did,” he said.

Scott has been praised for her “enormous courage and bravery” by NSW’s top cop and the community.

“It was an awful situation … but it could have been much worse,” police commissioner Karen Webb said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the “wonderful inspector who ran into danger by herself and removed the threat that was there to others, without thinking about the risks to herself”.

He also acknowledged bystanders had also taken steps to stop the man’s rampage.

“We also see the footage of ordinary Australians putting themselves in harm’s way in order to help their fellow citizens,” he said on Sunday morning.

Five victims identified

Five of the victims have been identified so far: new mother Ashlee Good, 38; millionaire businessman John Singleton’s daughter, Dawn Singleton, 25; architect and Bronte Surf Club member Jade Young, 47; and security guard, Faraz Tahir, 30, a Pakistani refugee who moved to Australia a year ago.

Late on Sunday night, 55-year-old Pikria Darchia was identified by her family as the fifth victim.

Good’s nine-month-old daughter was also stabbed during the attack and remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition.

Son of stabbed woman ‘still shaking’

Bondi local Jake Weinberg’s mother was among those hospitalised in the stabbing.

He said he was “still shaking” thinking about his mother being targeted in the terrifying attack.

“It was a horrible experience for my whole family,” he told 7NEWS.

“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

Four other people were killed in the rampage, including three women believed to be aged between 20 and 55 and a man in his 30s.

Webb said the male victim was believed to be a security guard at the shopping centre.

Two of the victims are from overseas, police said.

Eleven others, including nine women and two men, suffering stab wounds were treated by paramedics and taken to various Sydney hospitals.

Several other people attended hospital with injuries overnight.