Bondi Beach mass shooting was 'ISIS-inspired', say Australian Police

The mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 16 people dead was inspired by the Islamic State, Australian police said. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday (December 16), Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett described the attack as “a terrorist act inspired by Islamic State.”

The suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man, whom state officials named as Sajid Akram, was shot dead. His son was being treated at a hospital.

This is the first time political leaders and law enforcement officials have confirmed their beliefs about the suspects' ideologies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were based on evidence obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized”.

25 injured still in hospital

There are 25 people still being treated in hospitals after Sunday's massacre, 10 of them in critical condition. Three of them are patients in a children's hospital.

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Also among them is Ahmed al Ahmed, who was captured on video tackling and disarming one assailant, before pointing the man's weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.

Those killed ranged in age from 10 to 87 years old. They were attending a Hanukkah event at Australia's most famous beach on Sunday when the gunshots rang out.

Australian govt to tighten gun laws

Albanese and the leaders of some of Australia's states have pledged to tighten the country's already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare.

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Officials divulged more information as public questions and anger grew on the third day following the attack about how the suspects were able to plan and enact it, and whether Australian Jews had been sufficiently protected from rising antisemitism.

What PM Albanese said

Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed his cache of six weapons legally.

“The suspected murderers, callous in how they allegedly coordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ability of their victims,” said Barrett. “It appears the alleged killers were interested only in a quest for a death tally.”

Suspects travelled to the Philippines

The suspects travelled to the Philippines last month, said Mal Lanyon, the Police Commissioner for New South Wales state. Their reasons for the trip and where in the Philippines they went would be probed by investigators, Lanyon said.

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He also confirmed that a vehicle removed from the scene, registered to the younger suspect, contained improvised explosive devices.

ISIS flags recovered

“I also confirm that it contained two homemade ISIS flags,” Lanyon said.

The Philippines Bureau of Immigration confirmed Tuesday that Sajid Akram travelled to the country from Nov 1 to Nov 28 along with Naveed Akram, 24, giving the city of Davao as their final destination. Australian authorities have not named the younger suspect.

(With agency inputs)