Bondi beach shooting live: alleged gunman Naveed Akram out of coma; floral tributes for hero bystander left outside his tobacco shop | Australia news

The Jewish community will begin burying their dead tomorrow, Rabbi Yossi Friedman has told the crowd at the Bondi Pavilion memorial.

He reads the names of the nine victims so far identified, as he has been doing all day.He then led the crowd in a traditional Jewish song of peace, followed by Advance Australia Fair and the Israel national anthem. He said:

Lest this moment pass without us being truly impacted, we can take away a bit of the light from these victims, who are really the best of us.

The crowd of mourners has thinned but the floral tributes continue to grow. There are now spaces on some of the park benches circling the forecourt of the Bondi Pavilion and a young woman sits alone on one, weeping.

“I’ve come to rip off the Band-Aid,” she says, asking not to be identified. A close friend of her mother’s was one of the victims. Her cousin, who attended the Hanukah celebrations at Bondi on Sunday with her two children, aged 6 and 4, escaped with their lives.

The woman said:

She dodged bullets – on her birthday.

I’ve always kept my religion quiet, because I run a tech business, but not today. It’s time to stand up to those bastards.

Residents leave flowers and messages of thanks outside hero bystander’s shop

Miles Herbert

Since it was first reported that the hero who we now know as Ahmed al-Ahmed owned a shop in Sutherland, there has been much speculation in the Sutherland community about who this man is and how the community can thank him.

It seems the community in Sutherland has their answer. On my way home from work today, I passed a small memorial at the tobacco shop opposite the Sutherland train station.

When I asked a woman working at the neighbouring chemist, she told me it was indeed Ahmed’s shop and that she was extremely touched by the community response.

She said:

He is a very nice man. Whenever we need something he would offer to help.

People have been coming by and dropping flowers all day, I am speechless at the way the community has responded.

Flowers were laid with messages saying “thank you” and “we love you”. One read “you are an Aussie hero”. A sign taped to his door read “we are so very proud of you”, from “Sutherland residents”.

I was only there for a few minutes on my way home. But in those moments, members of the community stopped to take photos, people in groups lingered a bit longer and remarked to themselves about his bravery.

Tom McIlroy

Penny Wong speaks to Philippine foreign affairs secretary

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has spoken to the Philippines’ foreign affairs secretary, Tess Lazaro, about the Bondi shooting in the past few hours.

Lazaro offered her condolences to Australia and heard updates from Wong on the investigation under way in Sydney.

Wong said:

I am grateful for Foreign Secretary Lazaro’s condolences on behalf of the Philippines following the antisemitic Bondi terror attack.

Australia and the Philippines are strategic partners with longstanding cooperation on defence, education and regional security.

As of 4.30pm, there were 24 patients receiving care in Sydney hospitals for injuries sustained in the Bondi shooting, according to the latest update from NSW Health.

A NSW Health spokesperson said:

Patients continue to be discharged. Some patients who are discharged may return to hospital for further care, and are included in the number of patients reported below.

This is the situation as of 4.30pm today:

• Two patients are in a stable condition at Prince of Wales hospital.

• One patient is in a critical but stable condition, and one patient is in a stable condition at St George hospital.

• One patient is in a stable condition at Sydney Eye hospital.

• Two patients are in a critical condition, two patients are in a critical but stable condition and two patients are stable at St Vincent’s hospital.

• One patient is in a critical condition, two patients are in a critical but stable condition and three patients are stable at Royal Prince Alfred hospital.

• Two patients are in a stable condition at Sydney children’s hospital, Randwick.

• Three patients are in a stable condition at Royal North Shore hospital.

• Two patients are in a stable condition at Liverpool hospital.

Luca Ittimani

Record blood donations show Australia’s strength, says governor general

The governor general has praised record donations of blood as “a testament to the strength of our country”.

Earlier today, Sam Mostyn spoke to reporters in Sydney ahead of a visit to Lifeblood donation centres to see people donating blood, who she described as “heroes in their own way”.

Mostyn said:

Seeing those lines coming out of Lifeblood offices is a wonderful testament to the strength of our country … It tells me that Australians are good-spirited, always wanting to help, and when we ask [for help] and trust that the best in people prevails, that’s what does happen.

Mostyn urged all Australians to give blood if they could and keep finding ways to show support for the Jewish community and for each other:

Everyone can find those small moments to reach out to those that are hurting to ensure that we stand together, we stand with the Jewish community, we stand against antisemitism and all forms of discrimination … We find the very best of our country.

Dan Jervis-Bardy

Leading advocacy foundation calls for raft of new gun control legislation

Leading gun control advocate Walter Mikac, whose wife and two daughters were among the 35 people killed in the Port Arthur massacre, has endorsed stronger gun laws in the aftermath of the Bondi beach shooting.

In a statement issued by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, which Mikac co-founded in memory of his two daughters, he said:

Honouring those killed at Bondi Beach – and the legacy of my daughters, Alannah and Madeline – requires more than words of sympathy. It requires courage and a renewed commitment to public safety as the guiding principle of our firearm laws. Australia has led the world before – we can, and must, do so again.

The foundation called on the federal government and national cabinet to implement a raft of new protections, including limiting the number of firearms per individual, explicitly prohibiting the use of firearms by children, restricting more firearm categories and ending home storage of non-occupational weapons in metropolitan areas.

The foundation’s chief executive, Sarah Davies, said:

We stand ready to work with leaders across the country. The choices made now will determine whether this moment becomes another turning point or a missed opportunity to save lives.

Alleged Bondi shooter Naveed Akram, who has been in hospital in a coma since the incident on Sunday, has regained consciousness, NSW police have confirmed. We’ll bring you more on this when we have it.

Mike Hytner

‘It’s hit home pretty hard’: Australia and England cricket captains describe their reactions to attack

Australia cricket captain Pat Cummins has said the tragic events at Bondi beach “hit home pretty hard” as they unfolded on Sunday night just down the road from his home in the neighbouring Sydney suburb of Bronte.

As the cricket world prepares to pay tribute to the victims of the Bondi beach terror attack when the third Ashes Test gets under way in Adelaide on Wednesday, Cummins and England captain, Ben Stokes, revealed the profound impact the massacre had on them and their teammates.

“Like most other Aussies and people in the world, I was just horrified watching on,” Cummins said.

We had just put the kids to bed and flicked on the news as that was coming through. Me and my wife were watching in disbelief.

It’s a place that’s just around the corner from where we live and we take the kids there all the time. It’s hit home pretty hard. We really feel for the Bondi community and the Jewish community in particular.

Stokes said it was “an awful thing to watch unfold”.

Read the full story here:

The father and son accused of being behind the deadly Bondi beach mass shooting spent nearly the entire month of November in the Philippines, that country’s immigration department has confirmed, with Sajid Akram entering the country as an “Indian national”.

Akram and his son Naveed, who allegedly killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others at a Hanukah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi beach, arrived on 1 November with the southern province of Davao listed as their final destination, Agence France-Press reports.

Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval told AFP:

Sajid Akram, 50, Indian national, and Naveed Akram, 24, Australian national, arrived in the Philippines together last November 1, 2025 from Sydney, Australia.

Sandoval said the men departed on 28 November.

Caitlin Cassidy

‘How did they get away with having so many big guns?’

Fear is not new for Kobi Farkash. The Israeli citizen lived through the 7 October attacks in 2023, and subsequent conflict. But he didn’t expect to see terror arrive at Bondi beach.

Farkash has been in Sydney for around two weeks. He says Hanukah is something “very joyful” for families and was excited to see celebrations occurring when he arrived at Bondi beach on Sunday afternoon:

I was enjoying the beach, I didn’t know about the festival and I just heard the Jewish music and went inside. I was enjoying eating the doughnuts, walking around, for about 10, 15 minutes, and then I heard shooting, gunfire.

I thought it was fireworks, then I came closer and saw someone on the ground with blood. In that moment I realised it was a terrorist attack and ran away. I just kept running, running on the beach until I felt more safe.

Farkash says he thought Sydney was one of the safest places you could go.

When tourists come to Israel they see a lot of police, a lot of soldiers and people don’t feel safe. Here, you don’t see much security, much police, so it feels like the safest place to travel.

He questioned how long it took the police to arrive, and how long the gunmen were able to shoot.

I was thinking, where is the police? The gunmen kept going one by one … in Israel, when something like that happens, in two or three minutes you can see 20, 30 ambulances coming with the police, especially in a big city … and how did they get away with having so many big guns?

I asked someone, ‘why are you gathering in the open air with not much police?’, and he told me, ‘no one expects something like this would be in Bondi,’ it’s the most touristic, multicultural area, nobody thought these attacks would happen.

He also singled out Ahmed al-Ahmad, the Syrian-born man who attacked one of the shooters.

It shows Australians, they can see all the people, all the religions, they understand it’s against Australian people and against Sydney. Everyone wants to protect the life of people here.

Caitlin Cassidy

David and Janine, a Jewish couple, arrived at the Bondi Pavilion at about 6.30am.

The couple’s granddaughter, 12, was at Bondi Pavilion during the terror attack, celebrating a friend’s Bat Mitzvah. They were all safe, but spent the celebration in lockdown.

Janine says she doesn’t think they’ve processed “the enormity” of what’s happened:

Some kids didn’t know what to do, so they ran. I’m still trying to come to terms with all that’s happened … every day, you hear more stories, and we’re in shock and sadness … the thing that breaks my heart is my granddaughter always says my happy place is swimming at the sea at Bondi, and she was the one that was here.

Janine works in an aged care facility where there are many Holocaust survivors, who she says are going through extreme trauma:

Every day when they read the news, when there’s antisemitic attacks, car bombs, they just go back and remember Germany pre-Holocaust, and they’re fearful.

There’s not only Jewish people here [at the pavilion], there’s people from everywhere, Australians that feel as sad as we do.

David says all the Jewish community can do now is “help each other, give support, and stand together”, with the help of fellow Australians:

It doesn’t matter your religion, it’s just humanity. There’s radicals on every side and we just have to be strong in our community and carry on. Reclaim Bondi, this belongs to everybody here and we shouldn’t let people discourage us from coming here.

Bipartisan support in NSW for parliament recall for gun reform

Penry Buckley

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, indicated earlier that state parliament could be recalled before Christmas to strengthen gun laws agreed in principle at national cabinet.

He said he had not a “detailed discussion” with the leader of the opposition, Kellie Sloane, but thanked her for her bipartisan support after the attack:

We don’t have a draft bill, what I have been able to say is that she’s been incredible working with us over the last 24-48 hours.

Earlier, Sloane told 2GB she supported parliament’s early recall:

Look, if legislative change is required, then NSW opposition support recalling NSW parliament as quickly as possible.

We need a bipartisan approach, but we also need a bipartisan approach to hate speech, and we must draw a line in the sand, and this must be the wake-up call that this country needed to take tougher action to be firm on antisemitism.

The NSW Nationals leader, Gurmesh Singh, told the ABC this morning his party was ready for parliament to be recalled, but had yet to see substantive policy proposals.

Greens upper house member Sue Higginson has said the party supported changes to gun control laws outlined by the premier and prime minister, and has also called for a fresh national buyback scheme of “high-powered and excess weapons”, which the premier has yet to announce a position on.

Minns said that one aspect of reform that is “absolutely essential” was the use of criminal intelligence in determining whether someone should keep a gun licence.

Caitlin Cassidy

Tributes to victims read out at memorial

Rabbi Yossi Freedman, a former senior rabbi at Maroubra synagogue and local to Sydney’s eastern suburbs, arrived at Bondi Pavilion early on Tuesday morning and has been there for most of the day.

Every few hours, he reads the names of the identified victims to the crowd, and leads them in rounds of prayer and song.

One victim he singled out was Alex Kleytman, 87, who had survived the Holocaust before being fatally shot on Sunday evening. Freedman said he was succeeded by his grandchildren, who were also at the Hanukah event:

Alex was just here at a family event with his wife, his family, and he was murdered. He survived the horrors of the Holocaust just to be murdered here, at Bondi beach, what is supposed to be a safe space.

He also spoke of Tibor Weitzen, a relative of Kleytman’s wife, whose granddaughter was sitting next to him at the event.

He was brutally murdered in front of her. He was 78 years old, his granddaughter, pregnant, about to give birth any day. She’s now going through this trauma. Tibor was known to be the most generous, loving, kind, compassionate, selfless person. In fact, he was just swimming with his great granddaughter and his granddaughter on Sunday morning. They had no idea this would be the last time that they would be together.