Gunman targeted busiest gathering

FRIDAY prayers had just started at Christchurch’s Masjid Al Noor and Linwood mosques.

For Muslims, it is the busiest congregation of the week.

In terror gunman Brenton Tarrant’s mind, he knew this peak time of worship would mean mass casualties.

“He came through and started shooting everyone in the mosque … everywhere,” witness Ahmad Al-Mahmoud, 37, said.

In a nearly 60-minute spree, Tarrant, 28, dressed in army fatigues and a motorcycle helmet, killed at least 49 people and injured 50 – all believed to be Muslims observing their scared prayers.

Witnesses described hearing “hundreds and hundreds” of shots fired, with some locals nearby mistaking the massacre for construction works.

At the Masjid Al Noor mosque, on Deans Ave in the quiet, leafy suburb of Riccarton, up to 500 of Christchurch’s 2000 Muslim population had gathered to pray.

Ten minutes into the service, chaos erupted.

Before he even walked through the door, Tarrant shot his first victim.

Inside the building, Tarrant opened fire, screaming “let’s get this party started”, as prayer-goers scrambled across green mats in a desperate bid to escape.

“They had to smash the door, the glass and window to get out,” Mr Al-Mahmoud told Stuff.co.nz.

“We were trying to get everyone to run away from that area because we couldn’t open the door for everyone.”

One man who managed to escape saw his wife motionless on the footpath and had to be held back by friends.

“My wife is dead,” he wailed.

Another man described seeing children shot, adding “there were bodies all over me”.

Indian restaurant manager Prakash Sapkota, whose business Arjee Bhajee is around the corner from the Masjid Al Noor mosque, said he first realised something was wrong when he started seeing barefoot people running past covered in blood.

“I was at the counter and we started seeing a lot of people with no shoes running and crying with a lot of blood,” he told News Corp Australia.

“People were scared. We had to close our shop and we are staying here until we can leave.”

He said one of his friends was in the mosque but escaped the shooting by hiding in the toilets.

Even those running late to prayers did not escape.

Local motel Argyle on the Park owner Lena Borodin said Tarrant stopped his beige Subaru and shot an elderly Muslim man in the side of the torso as the man was walking towards the mosque, oblivious to the bloodshed ahead.