Two gunmen opened fire at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, December 14, killing 11 people and wounding multiple others in a “terrorist incident” during a gathering for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
Emergency responders rushed another 29 people to various hospitals from the beach, one of the biggest tourist draws in Australia’s largest city, said New South Wales police. One of the alleged shooters was killed, and the second was in critical condition, police said.
Police declared the shooting a “terrorist incident” and revealed they had found suspected “improvised explosive devices” in a vehicle near the beach that was linked to the “deceased offender.”
“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith – an act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a televised address. “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”
The shooting took place during an annual “Hanukkah by the Sea” event in the afternoon at Bondi Beach.
“We heard the shots. It was shocking, it felt like 10 minutes of just bang, bang, bang. It seemed like a powerful weapon,” Camilo Diaz, a 25-year-old student from Chile, told AFP at the scene. Crowds fled in fear from the beach in eastern Sydney, which draws huge numbers of surfers, swimmers and tourists, especially at weekends.
Emergency services first responded to reports of shots being fired at 6:45pm local time, New South Wales police said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned it as a “cruel attack on Jews” and urged the Australian authorities to step up the fight against antisemitism.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she was “shocked” by the shooting. “Europe stands with Australia and Jewish communities everywhere. We are united against violence, antisemitism and hatred,” von der Leyen, the European Commission President, wrote on X. “This appalling act of violence against the Jewish community must be unequivocally condemned,” added EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that France would fight “relentlessly against antisemitic hatred” as he extended his condolences. “France extends its thoughts to the victims, the injured and their loved ones,” Macron said in English on X. “We share the pain of the Australian people and will continue to fight relentlessly against antisemitic hatred, which hurts us all, wherever it strikes.”
The grassy hill overlooking Bondi Beach was strewn with discarded items from people fleeing too fast to pack up, including an abandoned children’s stroller, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
Paramedics tended to multiple people lying on the grass by the beach, images broadcast by public broadcaster ABC showed. A weapon that appeared to be a pump action shot-gun was lying by a tree by the beach.
A British tourist told AFP he saw “two shooters in black” after the gunfire broke out. “There was a shooting, two shooters in black with semi-automatic rifles,” Timothy Brant-Coles told AFP, saying he saw multiple people who had been shot and wounded.
Another witness, 30-year-old local resident Harry Wilson, told the Sydney Morning Herald he saw “at least 10 people on the ground and blood everywhere.”
Bondi Beach’s local Waverley Council said it was “deeply saddened” by the attack. “Our thoughts and prayers are with anyone who has been impacted by this horrendous act, which occurred as Chanukah festivities were taking place,” a spokesperson for the council said. (Le Monde)
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