Ten people were killed and around a dozen wounded when gunmen opened fire during a Jewish holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Australian officials said.
New South Wales police said two people had been taken into custody, and the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) said one of at least two gunmen was among those killed.
Around a dozen people were taken to local hospitals after the shooting, a New South Wales ambulance spokesperson said.
Australian police said an “improvised explosive device” had been found in a car linked to a suspect in the deadly shooting.
“We have found an improvised explosive device in a car which is linked to the deceased offender,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told a news conference.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the incident “shocking and distressing”, adding that “emergency responders are on the ground and working to save lives”.
“I saw at least 10 people on the ground and blood everywhere,” 30-year-old local Harry Wilson, who witnessed the shooting, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Jewish people who had gone to light the first candle of the Hanukkah holiday on the beach had been attacked by “vile terrorists”.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was appalled by the shooting.
“These are the results of the anti-Semitic rampage in the streets of Australia over the past two years, with the anti-Semitic and inciting calls of ‘Globalise the Intifada’ that were realised today,” he alleged.
One of the world’s most famous beaches, Bondi is typically crowded with locals and tourists, especially on warm weekend evenings.
“If we were targeted deliberately in this way, it’s something of a scale that none of us could have ever fathomed. It’s a horrific thing,” Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told Sky News, adding his media adviser had been wounded in the attack.
