Fifteen people are known to have been killed in the attack, including a ten-year-old girl, a British-born rabbi and a Holocaust survivor.
At 6.47pm, 14 minutes before sunset, New South Wales Police received the first reports of shots fired at Archer Park, Bondi Beach.
The devastation had begun at around 6.40pm when two thick-set men, later identified as a father and son Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, drove a vehicle to Campbell Parade near the beach.
Moments after the men exited their car armed with semi-automatic rifles, Sajid was confronted on the pavement by Boris Gurman, 69, and his wife, Sofia, 61. Dashcam footage showed the husband wresting a gun from Sajid, who grabbed a second firearm and shot the Jewish couple. Sofia died on the pavement lying over her husband; they were the first two victims of the massacre.
In a separate video lasting ten minutes, the gunmen walk onto a pedestrian footbridge overlooking the park, where they can be seen launching their targeted attack against the Jewish community.
From the elevated vantage point of the bridge, about 50 metres from the Chanukah gathering, the two men trained their weapons on the crowds of Jewish families and opened fire. Screams could be heard erupting.
Inside the park, some initially mistook the gunfire for fireworks.
After about 30 seconds of shooting from the bridge, the older gunman, Sajid, headed east towards the lawn where the Chanukah event was taking place. Naveed remained at the higher vantage point, continuing to fire.
When Sajid opened fire again from the ground level, a man later identified as Muslim shopkeeper Ahmed al-Ahmed approached him from behind and wrestled the weapon away, turning the gun back toward him. Law enforcement later said that al-Ahmed’s heroism had saved many lives.
The moment a Muslim passer-by sneaked up on Bondi beach gunman, wrestling weapon off him[Missing Credit]
After his weapon had been taken from him, Sajid stumbled backwards towards the bridge. But before he made it, another Jewish bystander, Reuven Morrison, ran towards the gunman, throwing a brick at him. Morrison was killed.
Back on the footbridge, Sajid rearmed with another weapon.
From their higher vantage point, crouched down below a small wall, the father and son continued shooting toward the Chanukah celebration.
Rebecca, 33, was with her husband and two children when the gunshots began. She shielded her five-year-old son with her body, pulling him beneath a table.“I was just praying to God, ‘Please, don’t let us die. Please just keep my son safe,’” she told Associated Press. A man lying inches from her was shot in the chest. Rebecca’s 65-year-old mother-in-law applied pressure to his wound, but the man died.
“One lady was to my side, and she was an elderly woman who couldn’t get down on the floor and they just shot her,” Rebecca said.
One of those fatally shot was later identified as Alex Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor from Ukraine.His wife, Larisa, told The Australian that he fell to the ground after the shooting began.
“We were standing and suddenly came the ‘boom boom’, and everybody fell down. At this moment he was behind me and at one moment he decided to get close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me.”
As the gunfire rained down, hundreds of people fled from the crowded beach, running across the sand in search of cover.
Unsure where the bullets were coming from, many stumbled into nearby restaurants or took cover under tables. Others ran into the surf, wading into the water to escape the line of fire.
In the UK, Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said his cousin was on the beach during the attack and sheltered for 15 minutes under a doughnut stand as terrorists were shooting.
Back on the footbridge, it took approximately nine minutes before one of the attackers, Sajid, was shot by a law enforcement officer. As he slumped to the ground, his son turned around and began shooting towards the west of the bridge, apparently in the direction of the police.
After more than a minute of further gunfire, Naveed was also shot and fell to the ground, but he continued to move, apparently writhing in pain. Onlookers can be heard on the video shouting, “They got him, he’s down,” before a man in pale clothing approached the bridge and gestured for police to move in.
Commotion followed as police officers and members of the public rushed onto the bridge. One man kicked one of the gunmen.
Inside the park, bystanders performed CPR on the wounded while other apparent victims lay motionless on the ground.
More than 40 ambulance resources, including helicopters and specialist paramedics, were dispatched to the scene. The beach was locked down as police urged the public to shelter and avoid the area. Forty-two people were taken to hospital.
Police later found an “improvised explosive device in a car which is linked to the deceased offender” and a bomb disposal unit was dispatched to the scene.
According to reports on Monday, Sajid died after being shot by police, while his son remained in critical condition in hospital. Sajid had been a licensed firearms holder since 2015 and was linked to six guns, all of which were allegedly used in the Bondi attack, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told a news conference on Monday morning. The country is said to be reconsidering its gun laws in the wake of the attack.
Police and onlookers surround the two gunmen (Photo X)[Missing Credit]
The father-and-son attackers targeted an annual event at the heart of one of the country’s most Jewish neighbourhoods.According to the 2021 census, Australia’s Jewish population was estimated at 116,967 people, representing 0.46 per cent of the country’s 25.4 million residents. In the Bondi Beach postcode alone, 4,441 residents identify as Jewish, accounting for 13.6 per cent of the local population, census data shows.
The Bondi attack, which was declared a terrorist incident three hours after it started, was the second-deadliest mass shooting in Australia’s history.
International Jewish emergency organisations announced they were sending support teams to Sydney. Zaka Search and Rescue said it would deploy 12 specialists with experience responding to terror attacks in Israel and abroad, while United Hatzalah announced it would send a team of medics.
A surge of people seeking to donate blood temporarily crashed the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood website, with about 40,000 people booking appointments.
Bird's-eye view of the park where the attack took place[Missing Credit]