MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia prepared for the funerals on Wednesday for some of the 15 victims of an antisemitic mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, an attack that police said was inspired by the Islamic State group.
The victims were between 10 and 87 years old. Twenty-two people who were injured in the attack remained in Sydney hospitals Wednesday, six of them in a critical condition.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday that the IS link assessment was based on evidence obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”
Among the injured in the hospital is Ahmed al Ahmed, hailed as a hero after he was captured on video tackling and disarming one of the assailants, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground. Three other people who tried to stop the gunmen were shot and killed.
A horrific attack
The gunshots rang out as members of Australia’s Jewish community attended festivities at Australia’s most famous beach Sunday.
They included Boris and Sofia Gurman, identified on Wednesday as a married couple who were the first killed when they tried to stop one of the shooters as he climbed from his car.
The suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24, authorities said. The father, whom state officials named as Sajid Akram, was shot and killed. His son, who hasn’t been formally named by the authorities, was being treated at a hospital.
The son emerged from a coma on Tuesday, said Mal Lanyon, police commissioner for New South Wales state, where Sydney is located. Lanyon told 702 ABC Radio Sydney that investigators expected to speak to and charge him on Wednesday.
Calls for stricter gun laws
Albanese and the leaders of some of Australia’s states have pledged to tighten the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed …