Shootings reported at New Zealand mosques

Police in New Zealand advised residents of Christchurch to stay off the streets today amid reports of active shooters at mosques in the center of the city as well as in a nearby suburb.

“Police are responding with its full capability to manage the situation, but the risk environment remains extremely high,” Police Commissioner Mike Bush said in a release today. Schools and public buildings were on lockdown.

Authorities said they were unable to confirm fatalities, but the scale of the bloodshed appeared to be vast. The national public broadcaster Radio New Zealand quoted an eyewitness saying, “There was blood everywhere.”

Reporters with the New Zealand Herald described seeing dead bodies near the Al Noor Mosque in central Christchurch, where about 300 people were inside for afternoon prayers, according to local media accounts. According to the Guardian, police were also warning of a bomb in a car that had crashed on a nearby street.

Among those inside the mosque in downtown Christchurch were members of Bangladesh’s national cricket team, according to a Bangladeshi journalist, Mohammad Isam. A correspondent with ESPNcricinfo.com posted a video on Twitter of the cricket players hurrying through nearby Hagley Park as sirens wailed in the background.

The chaotic scene unfolded a day after the country’s minister for climate change, James Shaw, said he was punched in the face on his way to parliament in Wellington.