Who were the suspected gunmen in Bondi Beach terror attack? | World News

A father and son have been identified as the suspected gunmen in the terror attack on a Jewish event in Bondi Beach which killed at least 15 people.

More than 1,000 people were celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on the beach on Sunday evening when two people opened fire on them.

Those killed in the attack range from 10 years of age to 87, including a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor, while 38 others have been injured.

One of the alleged gunmen has been named by New South Wales (NSW) police as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, while the other has been identified as his 50-year-old father Sajid Akram.

How did they carry out the attack?

Footage shows the gunmen start firing into the crowd from a footbridge that leads over a car park to the beach.

Sky News has identified from the footage that the younger gunman was using a rifle, while the older one was using a semi-automatic shotgun.

Police commissioner Mal Lanyon said officers searched two properties in connection with the suspects and found that the father had six firearms licenced to him.

Follow live: 15 people and gunman killed in shooting

He said they were confident that those firearms were the six found at the scene of the shooting.

More footage from the scene showed that a man, later identified as 43-year-old fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen, believed to be the father Sajid, before pointing his own weapon at him, which was empty.

The footage then showed the disarmed gunman running towards where the other gunman was located. Mr Ahmed was shot twice in the incident and required surgery, his family said.

The shooting is estimated to have gone on for roughly 10 minutes from 6.47pm. Eventually, the police took down the gunmen 75 seconds apart on the bridge.

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The father was killed at the scene by police, while the son was shot and wounded.

He is being treated at a hospital, according to police. Mr Lanyon said he “may well” face criminal charges.

In an update on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC that the suspect was in a coma.

He also said there were a range of IEDs and “explosive devices” in their car that they intended to use to “cause further damage”.

What do we know about their backgrounds?

Sajid Akram arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa and transferred to a partner visa three years later, before becoming a permanent resident, according to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. Officials have not disclosed what country he migrated from.

He had his gun licence for approximately a decade and held a gun club membership, Mr Lanyon said.

The younger suspect was an Australian-born citizen who first came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in October 2019, Mr Albanese told reporters.

“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Albanese said the suspect was investigated for six months over his connections to two people who later went to jail, one man for planning terror attacks.

He said he was not put on a watch list because the investigation uncovered no evidence that he was planning or considering any act of antisemitic violence.

Neither the father nor son have been on the ASIO’s radar since the 7 October Hamas attacks, he added.

What do we know about the motives?

New South Wales Police designated the attack a terrorist incident, and Mr Lanyon said a “significant investigation” would be led by counterterrorism and that “no stone will be left unturned”.

“When I asked for calm, that is really important,” he said. “This is not a time for retribution. This is a time to allow the police to do their duty. So police are responding to make sure that all of the community is safe.”

Mr Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.

On Monday, he said the attackers were “two evil people… driven by ideology” whose actions were the result of an “extreme perversion of Islam”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said after the attack: “This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah. What should have been a night of peace and joy celebrated in that community with families and supporters has been shattered by this horrifying, evil attack.”