Dozens killed in N. Zealand shootings
PM says anti-immigrant sentiment is possible motive, as security level raised
Attacks on two Christchurch mosques left 49 dead on Friday, with one gunman — identified as an Australian extremist — livestreaming the assault that triggered the lockdown of the New Zealand city.
Witnesses spoke of victims being shot at close range, with women and children also believed to be among those killed.
“It is clear that this can now only be described as a terrorist attack,” said New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a news conference. It marked “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”, she said.
She added that the attacks represented “an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence” and acknowledged many of those affected may be migrants and refugees.
New Zealand health authorities told Reuters that 48 people, including children, are being treated in Christchurch Hospital after the shootings.
Police took three men and a woman into custody after the shootings, which shocked people across the nation of five million people, The Associated Press reported.
Ardern alluded to anti-immigrant sentiment as the possible motive. She also said the national security threat level was being raised to the second-highest level.
As for the suspects, Ardern said: “These are people who I would describe as having extremist views that have absolutely no place in New Zealand.”
The authorities have not specified who they detained, but said none had been on any watchlist. A man who claimed responsibility for the shootings left a 74-page anti-immigrant manifesto in which he explained who he was and his reasoning for the attack. He said he was a 28-year-old white Australian and a racist, AP said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that one of the four people detained was an Australian-born citizen.
Police said one man in his late 20s had been charged with murder. He will appear in court on Saturday, Reuters said.
Chinese Consul-General in Christchurch Wang Zhijian told Xinhua News Agency that no casualties of Chinese citizens have been reported yet. The Chinese consulate-general office is working with local police to check if there are any Chinese citizens were caught in the gunfire.
After the attacks, the New Zealand military detonated two unattended bags near an Auckland railway station.
Military-type appearance
New Zealand is considered to be a welcoming country for immigrants and refugees. Last year, the prime minister announced the country would boost its annual refugee quota from 1,000 to 1,500 starting in 2020.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police were not aware of other suspects beyond the four who were detained but they couldn’t be certain, AP reported.
Bush said the defense force had defused a number of improvised explosive devices that were attached to vehicles stopped after the attacks.
He said anybody who was thinking of going to a mosque anywhere on Friday should stay put.
The deadliest attack occurred at the Masjid Al Noor mosque in central Christchurch at about 1:45 pm. Police said 41 people were killed there.
Witness Len Peneha said he saw a man dressed in black enter the mosque and then heard dozens of shots, followed by people running from the mosque in terror.
“I saw dead people everywhere. There were three in the hallway, at the door leading into the mosque, and people inside the mosque,” he said. “It’s unbelievable nutty. I don’t understand how anyone could do this to these people, to anyone. It’s ridiculous.”
He said the gunman was white and was wearing a helmet with some kind of device on top, giving him a military-type appearance.
A video that was apparently livestreamed by the shooter shows the attack in horrifying detail. The gunman spends more than two minutes inside the mosque spraying terrified worshippers with bullets again and again, sometimes re-firing at people he has already cut down.
He then walks outside to the street, where he shoots at people on the sidewalk. Children’s screams can be heard in the distance as he returns to his car to get another rifle.
There was a second shooting at the Linwood Masjid Mosque that police said seven people were killed.
The remaining victim succumbed in hospital, AFP reported.