Death toll climbs to 15 after mass shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach

The death toll from Sunday's mass shooting at a Jewish holiday celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach rose to 15, police said early on Monday.

Police said in a post on X that 16 people had died and 40 people remained in hospital following the shooting. The post did not specify whether a suspected gunman initially killed on Sunday, or another who had been described as being in a critical condition, were included in that toll.

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.

Aired footage showing people lying on the ground.

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".

Australia has experienced a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023.

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 realized today."

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.

Videos circulating on X appeared to show people on the beach and nearby park scattering as multiple gunshots and police sirens could be heard. One video showed a man dressed in a black shirt firing a large weapon before being tackled by a man in a white T-shirt who wrestled his weapon off him. A different man was seen firing a weapon from a pedestrian bridge.

Another video showed two men pressed onto the ground by uniformed police on a small pedestrian bridge. Officers could be seen trying to resuscitate one of the men. Reuters could not immediately verify the footage.

The attack came almost exactly 11 years after a lone gunman took 18 people hostage at the Lindt Cafe in Sydney. Two hostages and the gunman were killed after a 16-hour standoff.

Sussan Ley, the leader of Australia's opposition Liberal party, said the loss of life in the incident was "significant".

"Australians are in deep mourning tonight, with hateful violence striking at the heart of an iconic Australian community, a place we all know so well and love, Bondi," she said.

(Reuters)