Forty people have been killed and 20 injured in mass shootings at two mosques full of worshippers attending Friday prayers, said New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, calling it one of the country’s “darkest days”
This can “only be described as a terrorist attack”, she said in a second press conference following the shootings in New Zealand’s city of Christchurch, adding that the national security level has been changed from low to “high”.
“From what we know, it does appear to have been well planned,” she said. “Two explosive devices attached to suspect vehicles have now been found and they have been disarmed.”
She confirmed that four people, one of whom is an Australian, had been detained but said that none of them was on a terror watch list. The prime minister, however, said that she could not “give specifics about who was directly involved at each mosque”.
Authorities detained four people and defused explosive devices in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack.
Police took three men and a woman into custody after the shootings, which shocked people across the nation of 5 million people. Authorities have not elaborated on who they detained. But a man who claimed responsibility for the shootings left a 74-page anti-immigrant manifesto in which he explained who he was and his reasoning for his actions.
The man who claimed responsibility for the shooting said he was 28-year-old white Australian who came to New Zealand only to plan and train for the attack. He said he was not a member of any organisation, but had donated to and interacted with many nationalist groups, though he acted alone and no group ordered the attack.
Police urged people to stay indoors and not to visit mosques “anywhere in New Zealand” as they tried to determine if more than one gunman was involved.
Here are the details in summary;
- Man who claimed responsibility is a 28-year-old Australian
- 4 people, including a woman, taken into custody
- Multiple explosives found and defused
- Bangladesh cricket team flee site, 3rd Test cancelled
- Video of shootings reportedly recorded by attacker shared on social media