Ten people were killed and about a dozen injured when gunmen opened fire on a Jewish holiday on Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday, Australian officials said, Reuters reported.
New South Wales Police said two people had been taken into custody, while the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that one of at least two attackers was among the dead.
About a dozen people were taken to local hospitals after the shooting, a New South Wales Ambulance Service spokesman said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the incident "shocking and disturbing," adding that "emergency services are on the scene and working to save lives."
"I saw at least ten people lying on the ground and blood everywhere," 30-year-old local resident Harry Wilson, who witnessed the shooting, told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that Jews who came to light the first candle for the Hanukkah holiday on the beach were attacked by "heinous terrorists."
Australia has seen a series of anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars since the start of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he was disgusted by the shooting.
"These are the results of the anti-Semitic rampage on the streets of Australia over the past two years, with the anti-Semitic and inflammatory calls to 'globalize the intifada', which have come to fruition today," Sarr said.
Bondi, one of the most famous beaches in the world, is usually packed with locals and tourists, especially on warm weekend evenings.
"If we were deliberately targeted in this way, it's something none of us could have imagined. It's a terrible thing," Alex Rivchin, co-chairman and chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told Sky News, adding that his media adviser was wounded in the attack.
Footage circulating on X-Net appears to show people on the beach and in a nearby park running away as multiple gunshots and police sirens are heard. One footage shows a man in a black T-shirt firing a large gun before being overpowered by a man in a white T-shirt who snatches his weapon. Another footage shows another person shooting from a pedestrian bridge, Reuters reported.
Another video shows two men being held down on a small footbridge by uniformed police officers. Officers can be seen trying to resuscitate one of the men. Reuters could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the footage.
Susan Ley, leader of the opposition Liberal Party of Australia, said the loss of life in the incident was "significant".
"Australia is in deep mourning tonight, as hate violence has struck at the very heart of an iconic Australian community, a place we all know and love so well – Bondi," she said.
The attack came almost exactly 11 years after a gunman took 18 people hostage at the Lindt cafe in Sydney. Two hostages and the gunman were killed after a 16-hour siege.
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