SYDNEY — It was a beautiful summer evening at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, thronged Sunday by thousands of people soaking up the lingering warmth or taking sunset dips in the sparkling sea. Nearby, a Hanukkah celebration attracted families of all faiths, drawn in by face painting for children, ice cream, an outdoor movie and a petting zoo.
Then mayhem erupted.
For minute after minute shots rang out as people ran screaming, pulling one another into buildings, under tables and down alleyways; their beach towels, picnic blankets and flipflops strewn behind as they fled. At least 15 people were killed, dozens more injured.
The violence horrified Australians not only because of its scale and the antisemitic extremism behind it, but also because it unfolded at a cultural and environmental landmark that has long represented the country’s cheeky, friendly and relaxed way of life.
Symbol of laid-back culture
Bondi is Australia’s most famous beach. It’s the backdrop of a long-running reality television series about local lifeguards called “Bondi Rescue.” It’s also popular on Christmas Day with foreign backpackers who flock to celebrate on the sand.
The beach is well known for its election day fashion too. By tradition, some Australians visiting the Bondi polling place to vote arrive clad only in tight-fitting swim briefs known as Budgy Smugglers, with news photographers jostling to capture the most irreverent shots.
Sunday night began in that spirit, with children enjoying rides and bubble blowing at the event, called Chanukah by the Sea. Then two men — a father and son, authorities say — began indiscriminately gunning down men, women and children.
Those killed were between 10 and 87. One was a Holocaust survivor, the Australian newspaper reported.
Jewish families targeted
Rebecca, 33, who declined to give her surname because she feared reprisals, was with her husband and two children when gunshots erupted. In tears the morning after the attack, she described how she shielded her 5-year-old son with her body under a table.
“I was just praying to God, ‘Please, don’t let us die. Please just keep my son safe,’” she told the Associated Press.
A man lying inches from her was shot in the chest. Rebecca’s 65-year-old mother-in-law used a piece of cardboard to apply pressure to his wound, but the man died.
“One lady was to my side, and she was an elderly woman who couldn’t get down on the floor and they just shot her,” Rebecca said.
The shots went on and on. In video supplied to AP by a member of the public who filmed it from their nearby hotel room, gunfire can be heard for at least seven minutes, totaling dozens of blasts.
Guns are rare in Australia
The violence provoked terror at the beach, in part because most Australians don’t come into close contact with guns.
One beachgoer, Eleanor, who declined to give her surname, told the AP that she was walking at Bondi when the shots began and ran, fully clothed, into the ocean. On Monday, she plucked her sunglasses from a pile of abandoned belongings that lined the beach.
Bondi is an affluent suburb close to downtown Sydney and part of the Waverley local government area, which is the center of Sydney’s Jewish life. A knife attack last year at the nearby Bondi Junction shopping mall was initially feared to be an antisemitic attack, but authorities ruled out any political motive.
In that episode, law enforcement shot dead Joel Cauchi, who had a history of mental illness, after he stabbed to death six people and wounded 12 others at the complex on a busy Saturday in April.
Mass shootings in Australia are rare. The death toll from Sunday’s massacre is the highest since a mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996, which made it all but impossible for Australians to obtain semiautomatic guns.
The authorities said Monday that they had recovered six guns that were legally owned by one of the shooters, a 50-year-old man who was shot dead. His 24-year-old son — whom authorities say was the other assailant — was being treated at a hospital Monday.
The men haven’t been named by officials. But their motive appeared clear, Australia’s leaders said: a targeted attack on Australian Jews during joyful celebrations that marked the beginning of Hanukkah.
“It’s the Jewish community. We’re all family, we’re all one,” said Rebecca, who lives at Bondi with her family. “We’re such a strong, loving community.”
She felt abandoned by the authorities, who she said had “turned a blind eye” to rising antisemitism in Australia. What the attack says about the country and how Australia will be changed by it was a central preoccupation for commentators and political leaders on Monday morning.
Australians celebrate stories of bravery
In the aftermath of the violence, however, Australians also hailed the bravery of those who ran into the fray to help. They included a fruit seller identified by local news outlets as Ahmed al Ahmed, who appeared to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.
The famous surf lifeguards of Bondi Beach are trained to save struggling swimmers. On Sunday they ran toward the gunfire, barefoot and clutching first aid kits as they sought to help the victims, Australian news outlets reported.
On a Monday morning, the beach would usually be teeming with people — jogging, swimming, surfing and promenading with coffees to go. Under a gray sky and intermittent drizzle, this Monday was quiet.
Ashen-faced locals walked around in a daze, led by their dogs. Abandoned blankets, chairs and coolers were strewn across the grassy slope overlooking the sea, where moviegoers had been watching an outdoor film when the gunshots began.
“It’s really sad because Bondi is really [as] much about community and about people getting together,” Heather Norland, who was walking back from dinner with her husband and children when they heard the gunshots, told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Janine Hall and her daughter on Monday laid flowers at a growing tribute spot overlooking the beach before heading down to the sand to swim.
“I hope it’s an aberration and not the start of a change,” she told the AP, referring to countries where mass shootings were common, such as the United States. “Everyone keep their heads and don’t fight hatred with more hatred, because that’s just a one-way ticket to nowhere, for everybody.”
Robert, who declined to give his last name, has lived in Bondi for 17 years.
“Australia is untouched by a lot of things,” he said Monday. “No one was expecting this.”
Graham-McLay, Gelineau and McGuirk write for the Associated Press and reported from Wellington, New Zealand; Sydney and Melbourne, respectively.
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