A father and son have been charged with carrying out Australia’s deadliest terror attack, killing 15 people after opening fire on members of the Jewish community gathered to mark the start of Hanukkah at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach on Sunday night.
Read also | Bondi Beach Shooting LIVE: Father and son behind mass shooting that killed 15
Here’s what the police said
Police have identified the alleged attackers as a 50-year-old man and his 24-year-old son from Sydney’s western suburbs, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said on Monday, Bloomberg reported.
The gunmen were named as Naveed Akram and his father Sajid, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. citing law enforcement sources.
“The father, who also died in the shooting, had been a firearms owner for ten years and was licensed to own six guns,” Lanyon said.
“Police were satisfied to find six firearms at the scene. Officers also located and recovered two active improvised explosive devices and are no longer searching for a third offender,” Lanyon said.
Sajid Akram owned a fruit shop, ABC News reported.
“Police raided a house in Bonnyrigg, about 22 miles west of central Sydney, on Sunday night,” Lanyon said, as well as a house in Campsie where the pair lived.
The shooting victims ranged in age from 10 to 87, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said on Monday. Local press identified one of the victims as a rabbi.
The shooting was a “deliberate, targeted attack” on the Jewish community, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a press conference on Monday. He previously condemned the violence as “an evil act of anti-Semitic terrorism that has struck at the core of our nation” and warned that the authorities would respond harshly to anti-Semitism without tolerance.
Women lay flowers at a memorial outside the Bondi Pavilion on Bondi Beach in Sydney on Monday, December 15, 2025, the day after the shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)(AP)
“It’s our responsibility to put our arms around this hurting community and let them know that ordinary Australians, ordinary Australians, are in their corner,” he said on Monday.
The Jewish population in Australia was estimated at 116,967 in 2021, one of the 10 largest in the world. Bondi, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is among the country’s key Jewish communities.
Read also | After the Bondi massacre, Australia faces tough questions about extremism
The gunmen opened fire just after 6:45 p.m. local time as more than 1,000 people attended a Hanukkah event by the sea on a warm summer evening.
A bystander, who rushed to disarm one of the attackers, won praise from leaders around the world, including US President Donald Trump and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who announced a reward program for community heroes.
(With inputs from Bloomberg, ABC)
