Bondi Beach shooting: Father-son duo responsible for attack that killed over 15 in Australia, police say

A father-and-son pair armed with long-barrelled guns shot dead 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, in an attack authorities have declared an antisemitic terrorist incident targeting a Jewish festival.

The mass shooting at Australia’s most famous surf beach on Sunday triggered panic among large crowds at a popular tourist destination, shattering what is usually a symbol of leisure and celebration.

Victims include child; dozens injured

Police said the youngest victim was a 10-year-old girl who died in a children’s hospital, while the oldest was 87. Another 42 people were hospitalised, including two police officers.

Scene of chaos at iconic beach

On Monday morning, a grassy hill overlooking Bondi Beach remained littered with abandoned belongings left behind as people fled, including a camping table and blankets, an AFP journalist reported from the scene.

People later gathered items such as flip flops, sneakers and thermos flasks, lining them up on the sand for collection.

Hanukkah celebration targeted

Authorities said the gunmen attacked an annual Hanukkah celebration that had drawn more than 1,000 people to the beach.

The killings prompted global condemnation. Australia marked the tragedy by flying flags at half-mast on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, as he laid flowers at the entrance to the Bondi Pavilion.

“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location, Bondi Beach, that is associated with joy, associated with families gathering, associated with celebrations,” Albanese told a news conference.

“It is forever tarnished by what has occurred last evening.”

Suspects identified; raids conducted

Police said the 50-year-old father owned six licensed firearms, believed to have been used in the shooting. His 24-year-old son remains in hospital with critical injuries.

Officers raided two properties in Sydney, reportedly the homes of the two gunmen.

“We want to get to the bottom of this. We want to understand the motives behind it. And we certainly want to understand the actions that have happened,” New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon said.

International reaction and security response

World leaders expressed revulsion, including US President Donald Trump, who described the incident as a “purely antisemitic attack”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Australia’s government of “pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism” in the period leading up to the shooting.

“Antisemitism is a cancer that spreads when leaders are silent and do not act,” he said in a televised address in southern Israel.

Australian police said they were deploying additional officers to ensure a “highly visible” presence in Jewish communities and at places of worship.

Authorities have formally declared the shooting a terrorist incident.

Grief within Jewish community

Rabbi Mendel Kastel, who runs the crisis counselling centre Jewish House, said his brother-in-law was among those killed.

“I already knew that he had passed. I was together with his children. They didn't know at the time, so we needed to really hold together for them,” Kastel said.

“It’s unbelievable that this has happened here in Australia, but we need to hold strong. This is not the Australia that we know. This is not the Australia that we want.”

Accounts of fear and bravery

Stories of terror and heroism continue to emerge. Social media footage showed a man identified by local media as 43-year-old fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed grabbing one of the gunmen as shots were fired off-camera.

The man wrestled the weapon away and pointed it at the attacker, who then backed off.

French national Alban Baton, 23, said he hid for hours with others inside a grocery store’s cool room when the gunfire began.

“It was very fast,” he told AFP. “One girl said: ‘There is one guy with a gun’. And from this moment, everybody ran… it was like survival instinct.”

“Minute after minutes, we were starting to realize what was happening,” he said.

Wider antisemitism concerns

Iran’s foreign ministry denounced Sunday’s “violent attack in Sydney”. Iran has long supported Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Australian authorities say antisemitic attacks have increased since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Gaza war.

The Australian government has accused Iran of orchestrating two earlier attacks and expelled Tehran’s ambassador nearly four months ago. These included the torching of a kosher café in Bondi in October 2024 and an arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024. No injuries were reported.

In April 2024, a knife attack at a shopping centre near Bondi Beach killed six people. The assailant was found to have schizophrenia and had stopped taking medication, with no clear motive established.