SYDNEY - Dozens of people lined up early on Dec 16 at Sydney’s Bondi Beach to pay tribute to the 15 victims and those wounded in the
on Dec 14, Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years.
The death toll stands at 16 including one of the gunmen, aged 50, who was shot by police on Dec 14. The man’s 24-year-old son was in critical condition in hospital, police said on Dec 15.
at a Jewish Hannukah festival being held at Bondi Beach, forcing people to flee and take shelter amid the carnage.
Police have not released the suspects’ names, but national broadcaster ABC and other media have identified them as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram.
, considered among the toughest in the world, are now being examined by the federal government, after it was revealed that Sajid Akram had six registered weapons.
Police said he had held a gun licence since 2015. Two flags of militant group Islamic State were found in the gunmen’s vehicle, ABC News reported, without citing a source.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Dec 16 that gun laws introduced by the previous conservative Liberal-National coalition government in 1996 following the Port Arthur massacre needed to be re-examined.
“It is clear now that those laws need to be brought back up to date because it should never be the case that it is physically possible for two people to do what we saw on Sunday,” he told Channel Nine.
US Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff wrote on social media that he was flying to Sydney to be with his son Leibel, who was wounded in the shooting.
“Sitting on a very long plane ride to Australia from Texas, while still grappling with the lives lost and communicating with the hospital as my son Leibel goes into multiple surgeries for his life-threatening injuries,” he wrote on X.
“Leibel was spreading light, helping a community thrive, volunteering his year to bring joy to others.”
ranged from a rabbi who was a father of five, to a Holocaust survivor, to a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, according to interviews, officials and local media reports.
The aunt of 10-year-old Matilda has spoken publicly of her family’s heartbreak, saying they were devastated by her death and struggling to come to terms with her family’s tragedy.
Lina Chernykh told 7NEWS Australia that she was still in disbelief, saying she hoped the reports were not real.
“I am beyond belief that this happened. I look on the phone, and I am hoping it’s like a little big joke, not real," Ms Chernykh said.
She said Matilda’s father, her brother, was overwhelmed by grief and unable to speak with anyone.
“I didn’t even talk to my brother. He is beyond like stressed and doesn’t want to talk to anyone.”
Ms Chernykh said Matilda was with her 6-year-old sister, Summer, at the time of the attack.
“I hope she gets through this… and we all get through this,” she said, adding that no family should have to endure such an experience.
A growing memorial of flowers has been established at the Bondi Pavilion, metres from the location of the shootings.
“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian and our way of life,” said Mr James Larsen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations.
“There is no place for this vile anti-Semitism in Australia, or anywhere in the world.”
Two police officers, including Constable Scott Dyson, remained in critical but stable condition in hospital, New South Wales police said late on Dec 15. REUTERS
