Families anxious to bury their dead
Grieving families of the victims are anxious to be reunited with their loved ones.
Linwood mosque leader Lateef Alabi has supported members at Christchurch Hospital at a briefing with police over the release of the bodies.
‘‘Everybody is angry, everybody is upset of course, and they want to see their dead ones and just want to pay their last respects and let them go to the grave, but the police have to complete their work and go through the normal procedure before they are released.
‘‘We just request the bodies shouldn’t be too long in the mosque because the bodies are still lying over there and eventually it will be too difficult to wash the bodies and take to the burial.’’
He and other leaders wanted the mosques re-opened with increased security.
‘‘I’m very sad for what has happened, but I believe this country is a peaceful country and I hope something good will happen after that and the security will become tighter.’’
The mood at the hospital was tense.
‘‘They just want to express the anxiety and the pain they are going through. Our people are very good; it’s not that they are angry with the police or the work they are doing. They just want to see ... just to know that ... ok, my father is gone, my brother is gone ... so I just want to get him beneath the ground, beneath the earth.’’
No time for the release of the bodies for burial had been agreed, but Alabi said it would ‘‘probably’’ start today.
The volunteer imam said he was in the middle of prayers when he saw the gunman shoot someone in the head outside the mosque.
‘‘I stopped my prayer, I peeked through the window, and I saw the person with a machine gun, heavily dressed.
‘‘By the time I looked on the ground and saw dead bodies I thought this is something else, this is a terrorist.’’
He said the gunman ran out of bullets and dropped his gun. A man inside the mosque followed the shooter as he left the mosque. He picked up the machine gun and smashed it into the gunman’s car windscreen. After the gunman ran away, Alabi returned to the mosque.
‘‘I started picking up the bodies to know who was dead and who was alive.’’
Alabi said it would take some time and lots of reassurance before many members would feel safe to return to the mosques.
‘‘I believe New Zealand will do it. The PM has promised it, and she will do it.’’