Warped followers watched sickening atrocity as it unfolded
One web follower said ‘Nice shootin’ Tex’ as he fired indiscriminately at women and children
‘I will attack the invaders’
AMID the carnage in New Zealand, a young hero who tackled the gunman may have saved lives by wresting away his rifle.
Syed Mazharuddin said the unidentified youngster leapt into action as the terrorist fired wildly at worshippers at the Linwood Avenue Mosque in Christchurch, killing eight.
‘He saw an opportunity and pounced and took his gun,’ Mr Mazharuddin said last night.
He said the hero tried to turn the gun on the killer but was unable to make it fire.
It was last night unclear whether Brenton Tarrant, who killed 41 in an earlier attack on the Masid Al Noor Mosque, was also the Linwood Avenue gunman.
His warped followers were able to watch the Al Noor massacre live via his head-mounted camera.
‘Nice shootin Tex’, remarked one anonymous online viewer.
The 28-year-old Australian livestreamed his atrocity for 17 minutes, letting Facebook users see his terrified victims in their final moments.
In one appalling scene, a dazed survivor manages to pull himself clear of a pile of dead bodies only for Tarrant to march up and shoot him in the head.
The self-proclaimed racist – who was given a gun licence in 2017 – switched on his Go-Pro headcam around 1.40pm local time, ten minutes after he had boasted on a lawless website known as 8chan: ‘I will attack against the invaders, and will even livestream the attack via Facebook.’
Approving users immediately responded with Nazi images and one wrote: ‘This sounds fun.’
Tarrant’s horror video begins with him driving to the Al Noor mosque with a fearsome array of weaponry arranged neatly in the passenger footwell.
Turning the camera briefly on himself, he declares: ‘Let’s get this party started.’
Tarrant’s satnav device can be heard chirping instructions as he draws closer to the mosque.
The car stereo is playing a tune later identified as a Serbian hate anthem called ‘Remove Kebab’. As Tarrant turns into an alley by the mosque, a pedestrian steps out in front of him and the killer politely lets him cross the road.
The act of kindness contrasts horribly with what happens next.
Clad in military-style body armour, Tarrant has brought at least six weapons, including two assault rifles with red dot sights, a 12-bore semi-automatic shotgun and a short-barrelled pump-action shotgun. Brandishing a rifle, he strolls up to the mosque entrance where someone can be heard welcoming him by saying: ‘Hello brother.’
Tarrant takes aim at a figure inside then fires nine times in quick succession. Then he throws down his gun and produces a rifle with a flashing strobe light – designed to disorientate his targets – as he walks past his first victim on the floor.
Another man crawling along the corridor is shot, and Tarrant storms into the main prayer room. His rifle – emblazoned with the words ‘kebab remover’ – shudders with every shot as he peppers worshippers with bullets.
No one stands a chance as his gun, apparently enhanced with a ‘bump stock’ to aid rapid firing, sprays bullets into pathetic figures huddled in opposite corners.
The terrorist repeatedly runs out of ammunition and reloads. On one of his magazines, he has written ‘For Rotherham’, in reference to the child abuse scandal perpetrated by British Pakistani men.
As the wounded groan in agony, a worshipper rushes forward – either attempting escape or to tackle the gunman – but he is cut down by a hail of bullets.
Several times Tarrant stands over wounded figures, calmly reloading his gun, then shooting multiple times to execute those
‘Execute anyone playing dead’
playing dead. The framing of the video, which shows only the gunman’s hands holding the rifle, is chillingly similar in style to video games such as Call Of Duty.
Ramzan Ali lay among the bodies, still alive. He recalled: ‘I waited and prayed “Oh God, please let this guy run out of bullets”.’
Tarrant left the room, and Mr Ali decided to flee. He said: ‘The guy sitting beside me told me “no, no!”Next thing, the shooter came back and shot this guy who told me not to get up. He shot him right in the chest. The blood was splashing on me, and I was thinking “Oh my God, oh my God, this is going to happen to me now.”
‘I was just thinking If I get up, I’ll get shot so I was keeping my fingers crossed.’
Mahmood Nazeer said: ‘I was just praying to God and hoping our God, please, let this guy stop. The firing went on and on.’ Anwar Alsaleh hid in a bathroom and heard the gunman shout: ‘We’re going to kill you today.’
Ahmad Al Mahmoud escaped by smashing through a glass door. He said: ‘He had a big gun. He came and started shooting everyone in the mosque, everywhere.’
Khaled Al Nobani managed to flee with some children, while Shoaib Gani said: ‘I could see people getting shot around me and I was just praying, thinking about my family – them hearing the news that I’m dead. I just dropped to the floor hoping the bullet doesn’t hit me. I tried to hide under the table and then called home.
‘I thought I should talk to them one more time before I die because I could see that coming – I could see that everybody around me is dying. It was ringing, it was ringing, it was ringing, but nobody picked up.’ He added: ‘I could see women crying, children crying – children shot dead.’
Tarrant returns to his car, which was still blaring out music, this time a Waffen SS choir remix.
He is seen throwing his rifle to the ground and picking up one with a larger scope from the Subaru’s boot. Muttering ‘son of a bitch’, he runs back inside the mosque shouting: ‘We’re not going to get the badge today boys.’
At least two dozen bloodsoaked victims are strewn across the prayer room, but twisted Tarrant wants to make sure they are dead.
He starts shooting people in the head, including one man who had managed to lift himself to a sitting position. Seemingly satisfied everyone has been killed, he sprints outside and shoots a woman on the pavement.
She lies face down, begging ‘help me, help me’. Tarrant calmly leans over her and shoots her twice in the head. Then he returns to his car and drives off, over her body.
As the song Fire by British rock band The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown blasts from the speakers – the singer bellowing ‘I am the god of hellfire’ – Tarrant roars off, laughing as he resets his satnav.
Driving like a madman through the streets of Christchurch, he blasts a shotgun to ‘open’ a side window and takes pot shots at passers-by.
Addressing his Facebook watchers about the slaughter, he says he was ‘too quick … I should have stayed longer’, expresses regret for not ‘burning that f ****** mosque to the ground’, and says: ‘There wasn’t even time to aim there were so many targets.’ As his video draws to a close, Tarrant’s car is held up in traffic. Through the shattered passenger window, he calmly says ‘Hi’ to the driver on his left.
Back at the Masid Al Noor Mosque, 41 people lay dead and shell-shocked survivors were assembling on the lawn outside. One man was wailing: ‘My wife is dead.’ Idris Khairuddin, 14, said: ‘I am still shaking, and I am traumatised.’
Nour Tavis said one of his friends lost his wife during the terror attack. He added: ‘When she heard the noise she wanted to go and make sure her husband was safe. She got the bullet, her husband got away. She was gone, she was no more.’
Police later made four arrests and charged Tarrant with murder. One man, who had been armed, was later freed without charge after it emerged he was trying to help police.