 "Naveed Akram has been identified as one of the shooters")
Authorities have identified one of the shooters who targeted civilians on Sunday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Police confirmed the suspect is 24-year-old Naveed Akram from Bonnyrigg in Sydney’s southwest, as reported by Daily Mail.
An official, speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on condition of anonymity, said that police are raiding Akram’s home in Bonnyrigg.
Authorities have launched a large-scale police and ambulance operation at the iconic beach.
What happened at Bondi beach?
New South Wales Police responded around 6:45 pm AEDT to reports of an active shooter at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Footage from the scene shows two men firing from a bridge into a crowd.
ABC reporter Sean Tarek Goodwin spoke to a witness who saw the shooters, dressed in black, standing on a small footbridge near the Bondi playground car park. He said they “mowed down” people gathered at the park and described the shooting as lasting about 10 minute—“absolute hell on Earth.”
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View AllNSW Police confirmed that twelve people, including one shooter, were killed. A second shooter is now in police custody, though his condition is unknown. Twenty-nine others, including two police officers, were injured.
Photo: Suspect Naveed Akram’s alleged driving license doing the rounds on social media. (X)
The two officers are in a “serious, verging on critical” condition and are currently in surgery, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. NSW Ambulance has transported patients to multiple hospitals, including St Vincent’s, Royal Prince Alfred, St George, Royal North Shore, Westmead, Sydney Children’s Hospital, and Prince of Wales.
The attack took place at the northern end of Bondi Beach, near Bondi Park playground, where a Hanukkah event called Chanukah by the Sea was underway. Police located a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) on Campbell Parade, which the bomb squad is handling. Authorities have warned the public to avoid Bondi Beach.
‘Assault on the Jewish community’
NSW Premier Chris Minns called the shooting a “targeted attack on the Jewish community,” and Commissioner Lanyon declared it a terrorist incident. “As a result of the circumstances of the incident tonight, at 9:36pm this evening, I declared this to be a terrorist incident,” he said.
Peter Wertheim from the Australian Council of Australian Jewry said there were thousands at the event and he believed it was targeted.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his solidarity, calling it a ghastly terrorist attack on X.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also took to X and wrote, “Our heart goes out to them. Our heart misses a beat. The entire nation of Israel misses a beat in this very moment as we pray for the recovery of the wounded … and we pray for those who lost their lives. We send our warmest strength from here, from Jerusalem, and we repeat our words, time and again, to the Australian government, to take action to fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society.”