Australia mulls tougher gun laws after father and son kill 15 at Bondi Beach

• Two Daesh flags were found in the gunmen's vehicle: state media.
• Gunmen identified as father-son duo Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram.
• PM hints at considering limits on weapons permitted by licence.

SYDNEY: Australia signalled plans for tougher gun laws on Monday as the country began mourning victims of its worst mass shooting in almost 30 years, in which a father and son duo killed 15 people at a Jewish celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

The father, a 50-year-old, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in critical condition in hospital, police said at a press conference on Monday.

As many as 40 people were taken to hospital following the attack, including two police officers who are in serious but stable condition, police said. The victims were aged between 10 and 87.

Police did not release the shooters' names, but said the father had held a firearms license since 2015 and had six registered weapons. One of the suspected attackers was known to authorities but had not been deemed an immediate threat, security officials said.

They were identified as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram by state broadcaster ABC and other local media outlets.

Home Minister Tony Burke said the father arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, while his son is an Australian-born citizen.

Police did not provide details about the firearms, but videos from the scene showed the men firing what appeared to be a bolt-action rifle and a shotgun.

"We are very much working through the background of both persons. At this stage, we know very little about them," New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters.

Two Daesh flags were found in the gunmen's vehicle, Australia's national broadcaster ABC News said in a report, without citing any source.

The shooting has raised questions about whether Australia's gun laws, already among the toughest in the world, remain fit for purpose.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would ask cabinet to consider limits on the number of weapons permitted by a gun licence, and how long a licence should last.

"People's circumstances can change," he told reporters.

"People can be radicalised over a period of time. Licences should not be in perpetuity."

Hero bystander

Witnesses said the attack at the famed beach, which was packed on a hot weekend evening, lasted about 10 minutes, sending about 1,000 people attending a Hanukkah event scattering along the sand and into nearby streets.

A bystander captured on video tackling and disarming an armed man during the attack has been hailed as a hero whose actions saved lives. 7News Australia named him as Ahmed al Ahmed, citing a relative, who said the 43-year-old fruit shop owner had been shot twice and had undergone surgery.

A fundraising page for the man had raised more than A$550,000 ($365,000) by Monday afternoon.

Bondi local Morgan Gabriel, 27, said she had been heading to a nearby cinema when she heard what she thought were fireworks, before people started running up her street.

"I sheltered about six or seven. Two of them were actually my close friends, and the rest were just people that were on the street ... their phones had been left down the beach, and everyone was just trying to get away," she said.

"It's a very sad time this morning [....] Normally, like on a Monday or any morning, it's packed. People are swimming, surfing, running. So this is very, very quiet. And there's definitely a solemn sort of vibe."

A makeshift memorial with flowers and Israeli and Australian flags was set up at the Bondi pavilion and an online condolence book was established.

Police and private Jewish security guards wearing earpieces were positioned around as mourners paid respects and laid flowers.

'Pure evil'

Authorities said they were confident only two attackers were involved in the incident, after previously saying they were checking whether a third offender was involved.

At the suspects' home in Bonnyrigg, a suburb around 36 kilometres (22 miles) west of the central business district, there was a heavy police presence on Monday, with a cordon wrapping around several neighbouring houses.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Bondi Beach on Monday morning to lay flowers near the scene of the attack.

"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," Albanese told reporters.

"The Jewish community are hurting today. Today, all Australians wrap our arms around them and say, we stand with you. We will do whatever is necessary to stamp out antisemitism. It is a scourge, and we will eradicate it together."

Albanese said several world leaders including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron had reached out and offered condolences and support.

Sunday's shootings were the most serious in a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars in Australia since the beginning of Israel's war in Gaza in October 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had warned Albanese that Australia's support for Palestinian statehood would fuel antisemitism.

In August, Australia accused Iran of directing at least two antisemitic attacks and gave Tehran's ambassador a week to leave the country.

'Rare' mass shooting

Mass shootings are rare in Australia, one of the world's safest countries. Sunday's attack was the worst since 1996, when a gunman killed 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site in the southern island state of Tasmania.

Rabbi Mendel Kastel, whose brother-in-law Eli Schlanger was killed in Sunday’s attack, said it had been a harrowing evening.

"You can very easily become very angry and try to blame people, turn on people but that’s not what this is about. It’s about a community," he said.

"We need to step up at a time like this, be there for each other, and come together. And we will, and we will get through this, and we know that. The Australian community will help us do it," he added.

Local woman Danielle, who declined to give her surname, was at the beach when the shooting occurred and raced to collect her daughter, who was attending a bar mitzvah at a function centre near where the alleged shooters were positioned.

"I heard there was a shooting so I bolted there to get my daughter, I could hear gunshots, I saw bodies on the ground. We are used to being scared, we have felt this way since October 7."

Australia's Jewish diaspora is small but deeply embedded in the wider community, with about 150,000 people who identify as Jewish in the country of 27 million. About one-third of them are estimated to live in Sydney's eastern suburbs, including Bondi.