Dramatic footage shows the moment a group of young partygoers started panicking as they realised a terrorist attack was happening on Bondi Beach just outside.
Fifteen innocent people – including a 10-year-old girl – were killed during Australia’s second worst mass shooting on Sunday at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration, while 40 others were injured.
Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid Akram, 50 – who was shot dead at the scene – have been named as terror suspects responsible for the killings.
The two attackers stepped out of a vehicle on Campbell Parade, near Bondi Pavilion, and opened fire at about 6.47pm on Sunday, according to witnesses, with videos showing blast after blast on the tourist strip.
Horrifying footage shows the moment one group of young adults suddenly realised people on the beach were fleeing for their lives as they partied in a house by the sea.
Music blared from the speakers as a woman shouted ‘what the f***’ when spotting beachgoers manically sprinting away from the scene.
The group watched on in horror before another woman shouted ‘have they locked the front door? Lock the front door!’
Revellers started calling for their friends, with one screaming ‘Charlotte, get the f*** inside’ and another yelling ‘Laura, come here’.
Footage shows the moment a group of young adults suddenly realised people on Bondi Beach were fleeing for their lives during a terrorist attack on Sunday
One woman shouted ‘what the f***’ when spotting beachgoers manically sprinting away from the scene
Naveed Akram, 24, was identified as one of the alleged gunmen behind the Bondi Beach shooting
Right outside, panicked beachgoers could be seen abandoning their belongings as they ran along the sand, with others frantically sprinting towards the beach house.
Twelve people injured in Sunday night’s attack remained in a critical condition on Tuesday, while a further 26 patients have been in various conditions across seven hospitals in Sydney.
The firearms appeared to be semi-automatic, with magazines seen scattered on the ground.
Police are examining a suspected IED bomb at the scene.
Victims include a 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor, a London-born rabbi and a retired police officer.
Naveed Akram was arrested at the scene and taken to a Sydney hospital with critical injuries, while his father Sajid died after being shot by the police. Sajid is understood to be originally from Pakistan.
The pair, armed with hunting rifles, opened fire at hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the first night of the Jewish festival, committing Australia’s worst mass shooting in three decades.
Akram was shot, arrested and was rushed to hospital in critical condition under police guard
Sajid arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998, which he transferred to a partner visa in 2001. He has held a resident return visa ever since, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.
His son, an Australian-born citizen, was investigated by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) for six months in 2019 over close ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State terrorism cell.
Today, a mother caught up in the attack described the harrowing moments she spent covering her daughter’s body with her own while people were shot around them.
Shemi Kahn, aged five, was ‘giddy with excitement’ to go to the ‘party’ at the park near Bondi Pavilion to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah on Sunday.
Her mother, Jessica, heard the first shot fired by the gunmen and watched in horror as people around them turned to the sky.
‘I looked at the crowd and I saw people smiling, looking up, and I clocked in just that second, they think it’s fireworks and it’s not,’ Jessica told the ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday.
In an instant, Jessica grabbed Shemi and ran for a small, sunken area in the grass.
She joined countless other parents who threw their children down in the pit and laid on top, exposing themselves to gunfire.