Gunmen kill at least 11 people at Jewish event at Sydney's Bondi Beach

Australian authorities have described a deadly shooting at a Jewish gathering on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday as a terrorist attack, after two gunmen opened fire, killing at least 11 people. One of the attackers was shot dead by police at the scene, while the second was taken into custody and remains in a critical condition.

Emergency services mounted a large-scale response as chaos unfolded along the beachfront. Dozens of injured people were rushed to hospital in ambulances, while police sealed off the area and urged the public to stay away.

New South Wales Police commissioner Mal Lanyon said at least 29 people had been wounded in the attack, including two police officers. He added that the number of fatalities could still change as authorities continued to receive updates from hospitals.

“This attack was designed to target Sydney's Jewish community,” New South Wales premier Chris Minns said. Lanyon said the shooting had been classified as a terrorist incident because of both the nature of the event that was targeted and the weapons used by the attackers.

The violence erupted during 'Chanukah by the Sea', a public event at Bondi Beach attended by hundreds of people to mark the beginning of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Television channels in Australia broadcast dramatic video footage, apparently recorded by a bystander, which appeared to show a member of the public tackling one of the gunmen, wresting his weapon away and then turning it back towards him.

Lachlan Moran (32), who was visiting from Melbourne and waiting nearby for his family, told The Associated Press that he heard gunshots moments before panic spread through the crowd. Carrying beers for his brother, he said he immediately dropped them and ran.

“You heard a few pops, and I freaked out and ran away. ...I started sprinting. I just had that intuition. I sprinted as quickly as I could,” Moran said. He added that the sound of gunfire continued intermittently for around five minutes.

“Everyone just dropped all their possessions and everything and were running, and people were crying, and it was just horrible,” he said.

Police said their operation remained “ongoing”, with specialist officers examining a “number of suspicious items located in the vicinity”. Among the discoveries was an improvised explosive device found inside one of the suspect’s vehicles. Emergency services were first called to Campbell Parade at about 6.45 pm after reports of shots being fired.

Local media spoke to shocked bystanders, some of them injured and covered in blood, as they fled the scene. Lanyon said the situation was still evolving, stressing that the death toll was “fluid” as more injured people continued to arrive at medical facilities.

“Our heart bleeds for Australia's Jewish community tonight,” Minns told reporters in Sydney. “I can only imagine the pain that they're feeling right now to see their loved ones killed as they celebrate this ancient holiday.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also expressed his condolences, saying his thoughts were with everyone affected by the attack. “The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing,” he said. “Police and emergency responders are on the ground working to save lives.”

Mass shootings are extremely uncommon in Australia. The country’s gun laws were dramatically tightened after a 1996 massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in which a lone gunman killed 35 people, leading to sweeping restrictions on firearm ownership.

Since then, only a handful of significant mass shootings have occurred. These include two murder-suicides earlier this century, one in 2014 that left five people dead and another in 2018 in which seven people were killed, both involving perpetrators who murdered family members before taking their own lives.

In 2022, two police officers were shot dead by Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland. The three attackers, described as conspiracy theorists with a deep hatred of police, were later killed by officers following a six-hour siege in the Wieambilla region, along with one of their neighbours.

With AP/PTI inputs