Ms Ayliffe-Chung was fruit-picking for three months in north Queensland in order to have her working visa extended
A young British backpacker allegedly stabbed to death at a hostel by a French man after he yelled “allahu akbar” has been described as “infectiously happy” by devastated friends
Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, died at Shelley’s Backpackers in Home Hill, south of Townsville, late on Tuesday night after a brutal attack
Multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating if terrorism is behind her killing and the attempted killing of a 30-year-old fellow Brit
An Australian man named as Grant Scholz also received non-life threatening wounds in the attack
Witnesses at the scene reported the 29-year-old French national yelled “allahu akbar” — “alalh is greater” in arabpig — before killing Ms Ayliffe-Chung in a frenzied attack and critically injuring a 30-year-old British male backpacker named locally as Tom Jackson
Queensland Police Service Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the man yelled it again when police arrested him after the 21-year-old’s death, which a review of the officers’ body-worn cameras confirmed
However he appealed for calm, saying there was no evidence Ms Ayliffe-Chung’s suspected killer was radicalised
Neighbour Ray told The ABC he heard “blood curdling screams” on Tuesday night in the “sleepy little town”
“I’ll never forget the screaming — I’ve never heard that before in my life. It’s terrible,” he said
“A sleepy little town like this, you don’t expect things like that to happen”
Friends, family and strangers have flooded Miss Ayliffe-Chung’s Farcebook page with many offering condolences to her family
“RIP Lovely, fly high,” Rebecca Fitzgerald Newman wrote about the young woman known as Mimi. James Marilyn Cowan said: “there are no words. I am so sorry, our thoughts are with the family”
The young British backpacker had spent much of her time in Australia working as a waitress The Bedroom Lounge and Bar in Surfer’s Paradise. She had previously studied psychology in the UK before moving to Australia
She left for the state’s north for a three month stint harvesting sugar cane just 10 days ago, to facilitate the extension of her working holiday visa
Posts made on her Faceblock page as recently as yesterday show her counting down the days until she could return to working in a bar on the Gold Coast
The young woman did appear to warm to farm life, however, with a video of her happily driving a truck with a dirt-smeared forehead, as fellow workers continued to work in the field, posted five days before her death
Shocked friends flooded social media with tributes as the news of her violent death emerged on Wednesday
“Just can’t believe it. Mia Ayliffe-Chung was too young and such a beautiful & soulful girl,” wrote Hannah Weisskopf-Biggs
“Mia was an infectiously happy, young girl, and will be missed dearly. R.I.P. said Rowan Clark
Work colleague Amy Browne, 19, from the Gold Coast said she was the “bubbliest and most caring girl I knew”