Sydney, December 15, 2025: Australia on Monday vowed to tighten gun laws as the nation began mourning the victims of its deadliest mass shooting in nearly three decades, after police accused a father and son of killing 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach.
The older suspect, a 50-year-old man, was shot dead by police at the scene, taking the death toll to 16, while his 24-year-old son remains in critical condition in hospital, police said during a press conference.
Police have not officially released the suspects’ names, but national broadcaster ABC and other local media identified them as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram. ABC News reported that two flags of the militant group Islamic State were found inside the gunmen’s vehicle, citing unnamed sources.
The attack has reignited debate over Australia’s gun control framework—already among the strictest in the world—after police confirmed the older suspect had held a firearms licence since 2015 and legally owned six registered weapons.
Police said the gunmen opened fire for between 10 and 20 minutes on Sunday evening, targeting attendees at the Hanukkah event and killing men, women and children as hundreds of terrified beachgoers fled along the sand and into nearby streets.
Victims ranged in age from 10 to 87 years, according to officials and local media. Those killed included a rabbi who was a father of five, a Holocaust survivor, a Slovak woman, and a 10-year-old girl. Around 40 people were taken to hospital, including two police officers who were listed in serious but stable condition.
“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil — an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after laying flowers at Bondi Beach.
“The Jewish community are hurting today. All Australians wrap our arms around them and say: we stand with you. We will do whatever is necessary to stamp out antisemitism.”
Mourners gathered at a makeshift memorial near the Bondi Pavilion, laying flowers beneath Israeli and Australian flags, as police and private Jewish security guards patrolled the area.
Albanese said his cabinet had agreed to move swiftly to strengthen gun laws, including work on a national firearms register, stricter limits on the number of weapons a licence holder can own, and tighter rules on the duration of licences.
“People’s circumstances can change. People can be radicalised over time,” the prime minister said. “Licences should not be in perpetuity.”
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said one of the suspects was known to authorities but had not been assessed as an immediate threat.
“We are still working through the background of both individuals,” he said.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the father arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, while the son was an Australian-born citizen. Police did not disclose specific firearm details, though video footage from the scene appeared to show a bolt-action rifle and a shotgun.
Witnesses said about 1,000 people had been attending the Hanukkah event when the shooting began on a hot weekend evening.
A bystander, Ahmed al Ahmed, who was filmed tackling and disarming one of the attackers, has been hailed as a hero. He underwent surgery after being shot twice, while a fundraising campaign for him raised more than A$1 million ($665,000) within hours.
Bondi resident Morgan Gabriel, 27, said panic spread rapidly as people fled the area.
“Their phones were left down on the beach — everyone was just trying to get away,” she said, describing an unusually quiet and somber scene the following morning.
World leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, offered condolences, Albanese said.
The shooting was the deadliest in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which 35 people were killed — an event that led to sweeping national gun reforms. It also marked the most serious incident in a series of antisemitic attacks across Australia since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
Australia’s Jewish population numbers about 150,000 out of a total population of 27 million, with roughly a third living in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, including Bondi.
