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At least 11 people have been killed after gunmen opened fire on a Jewish community event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in an attack that Australian authorities said was being treated as terrorism.
The police said one shooter had been killed. A further 29 people have been hospitalised including two police officers.
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, said at a press conference that the attack was being treated as terrorism. “I very sadly need to report that, as of now, there are at least 12 individuals that have been killed. One of the offenders has also been killed, and one is in custody,” he said.
Gunmen opened fire at the north end of the beach where an event to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light, was taking place.
More than 1,000 people were attending the event, according to the police. The shooters took up position on a bridge looking down over a park on the beach before opening fire.
“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,” Minns said.
“This cowardly act of terrifying violence is shocking and painful to see and represents some of our worst fears about terrorism in Sydney.”
Police said they had found a vehicle near the site of the attack that contained an improvised explosive device. They have not ruled out the possibility that a third person was involved.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the scenes from Bondi were “shocking and distressing”.
“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith. An act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism, that has struck the heart of our nation. An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian,” Albanese said at a press conference.
Albanese referred to a video of a man appearing to disarm one of the shooters before being fired on by the other attacker. “We have seen Australians today run towards danger in order to help others. These Australians are heroes, and their bravery has saved lives,” he said.
One person who spoke to the Financial Times on condition of anonymity said she was planning to attend an event at Bondi Pavilion, adjacent to the site of the attack, when she heard shots from her car. “I thought, ‘It can’t be fireworks because it’s still daylight’. Then people started running,” she said, adding that two women, one of whom was pregnant, jumped in her car to escape.
She said thousands of people were on the beach. “It was a beautiful Sunday evening,” she said. “It was brazen. It was in daylight.”
Another person who spoke to the FT but declined to be named said that a friend of hers had been shot in the shoulder and that the names of casualties were already circulating in the Jewish community.
Mike Burgess, head of Australia’s intelligence agency, said that one of the shooters was known to his agency but not from an “immediate threat perspective”. He said that he did not expect the country’s terror rating to change from the current level of “probable”.
The Jewish community in Australia has previously been targeted by antisemitic attacks in recent years.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said Sunday’s attack targeted “Jews who went to light the first candle of Hanukkah on Bondi Beach”.
“Our hearts go out to them. The heart of the entire nation of Israel misses a beat at this very moment, as we pray for the recovery of the wounded, we pray for them and we pray for those who lost their lives,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had written to his Australian counterpart earlier this year warning about antisemitism in Australia, and accused him of not doing enough to fight it.
“Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia. You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action. You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s foreign ministry said one Israeli citizen was among the dead.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said he was “appalled” by the shooting, which he said was “the result of the antisemitic rampage in the streets of Australia over the past two years”.
“The Australian government, which received countless warning signs, must come to its senses!” he added.
Additional reporting by James Shotter in Jerusalem
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