At least two gunmen opened fire at two mosques in New Zealand’sChristchurch city on Friday, with the police saying that there were”multiple fatalities”.
The shootings took place at theAl Noor Mosque and Linwood Masjid, The New Zealand Herald reported.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush has confirmed “multiplefatalities”, adding that there was one person in custody “but we areunsure if there are other people”.
“Again we are unsure ifthere are any other locations outside of that area. We have mobilised everypolice resource in the Canterbury location to respond to this and we are alsoin the process of mobilising every national police resource to keep peoplesafe,” Bush told the media here.
One gunman, believed to beAustralian, filmed as he shot victims in the mosque – and wrote a manifestodeclaring his intentions, saying that “it is a terrorist attack”,according to Bush.
Addressing a media conference inNew Plymouth, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the events inChristchurch as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”.
Ardern described the event as”extreme and unprecedented violence”.
There were also reports of athird active shooting unfolding outside Christchurch Hospital and and a carbomb in Strickland St, but these two incidents were yet to be verified.
Authorities advised people notto go to mosques until further notice. All Christchurch schools are onlockdown.
Apart from numerous witness reportsof casualties, a reporter following the Bangladesh cricket team, who arecurrently in New Zealand, tweeted that the team had “escaped from a mosquenear Hagley Park where there were active shooters”.
Player Tamim Iqbal tweeted thatthe “entire team got saved from active shooters”.
Bangladesh Cricket Boardspokesman Jalal Yunus said most of the team had gone to mosque by bus and wereabout to go inside when the incident took place.
Yunus confirmed that all theplayers were safe.