A father and son opened fire on a Jewish festival at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in a shooting spree that killed 15 people including a child, authorities said Monday as they denounced the attack as antisemitic “terrorism”.
The duo fired into crowds packing the beach for the start of Hanukkah on Sunday evening, sending people fleeing in panic across the tourist hotspot.
A 10-year-old girl was among the 15 dead in Australia’s worst mass shooting for almost 30 years, while 42 more were rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds and other injuries.
Police are still unravelling what drove the shootings, although authorities have said the plot was clearly designed to sow terror among the nation’s Jews.
“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday, before laying flowers at the Bondi Pavillion.
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The gunmen targeted an annual celebration that drew more than 1,000 people to the beach to mark the Jewish festival.
They took aim from a raised boardwalk looking over the beach, which was packed with swimmers cooling off on a steamy summer evening.
Carrying long-barrelled guns, they peppered the beach with bullets for 10 minutes before police shot and killed the 50-year-old father.
The 24-year-old son was arrested and remained under guard in hospital with serious injuries.
Rabbi Mendel Kastel said his brother-in-law was among the dead.
