Lily Anderson described the “terrifying” moment she heard “screaming” coming from Bondi Beach, where 16 people were killed, including one gunman, and 40 others injured.
A Scots fitness influencer has spoken of her terror after “hearing screaming” and narrowly missing the horrific mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Lily Anderson, 20, from Renfrewshire, arrived in Australia 12 days ago to visit her best friend Abbi Taylor.
The dream trip turned into a nightmare when the pair realised they had been just moments away from deadliest attack in the country since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre when a gunman killed 35 people. Yesterday, 16 people were killed, including one gunman, and 40 others were rushed to hospital with injuries after shots rang out at the popular beachfront.
Police said the attackers were father and son, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24. Officers later discovered “several” explosive devices at the scene, believed to be linked to the dead gunman. A second attacker, identified by a senior law enforcement official as Naveed Akram, has been injured and is now in police custody.
Lily and Abbi had been at the popular beach just before the mass killing unfolded. The personal trainer had even posted an Instagram story of herself running down the beach earlier that day.
Taking to TikTok to update her near-100k followers, Lily opened up about the terrifying moments as the horror unfolded nearby.
She said: “Abbi and I are both safe. It’s awful and so tragic. We were there a few hours before to post an Instagram story of me running down the beach.
“It’s terrifying that’s happened. We are just 10 minutes from there and we heard the screaming.”
Lily said it was a gut feeling that stopped them from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She added: “Abbi and the intuition and feeling that we couldn’t be there and had to go. I’m so grateful for that and being protected.
“I’m sending so much love to the families involved and everything. We are just not going to the beach today.”
She later shared a message to her Instagram followers, reflecting on how lucky she was.
She posted: “We are really counting our blessings and practicing gratitude today.”
Kian Bentley, 22, from Stirling also told how he helped a “stampede” escape out of an open-air cinema he was working at after hearing the gunshots. The musician moved to Sydney recently to pursue a music career.
He recalled everything happening in “slow motion” after the shooting commenced. Kian said that he was texting friends while on shift at 7pm local time when he heard “bangs echo around” the area, but did not initially realise they had come from a gun.
He said: “I just heard two or three bangs go off, but I thought it was fireworks. But then you heard screams in the distance and everyone in front of me in the cinema just got up and started running. It became a panic quite instantly.
“I quickly opened the fence for the back gate and everyone stampeded out. Hundreds of people just panicked. As soon as I saw everyone panicking, I knew it was serious.”
In the hours following the fatal attack, the identities of the victims tragically killed are starting to be shared. One of the latest to be identified is French national Dan Elkayam, 27.
President Emmanuel Macron named him as being among the dead. Elkayam was a member of the Rockdale Ilinden football club’s Premier League One team in southern Sydney.
The youngest known victim confirmed has been Matilda Poltavchenko, 10, who sadly died after she was struck by gunfire whilst taking part in the Hanukkah celebrations. Heartbroken relatives have described her as a “bright, joyful and spirited” child.
Also among the victims was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a 41-year-old London-born father of five, who had recently welcomed a newborn son with his wife, Chayala. His family said he had attended the celebration to “spread happiness and light.”
Alex Kleytman, a Ukrainian Holocaust survivor, died after being shot in the head while trying to protect his wife of five decades, Larisa. Mrs. Kleytman, speaking to The Australian, said the couple had attended the celebration as part of a long-standing family tradition.
She described the moment her husband acted to shield her: “We were standing and suddenly came the ‘boom boom,’ and everybody fell down. He pushed his body up to stay near me. He was trying to protect me.”
