By Hilary Whiteman, Angus Watson, Mitchell McCluskey, CNN
Sydney, Australia (CNN) — Sydney residents have laid flowers and lit candles in a massive outpouring of support as the community mourns people who were massacred by two gunmen in a terror attack Sunday targeting the Jewish community celebrating the first night of Hannukah at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach.
Around 1,000 people had gathered on a grassy area at Archer Park when two gunman opened fire at 6:47 p.m. local time, sending panicked crowds running in all directions.
The suspects in the deadly shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach were a father and son, identified as 50-year-old Sajid Akram, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram.
The shooting appeared to have been inspired by extremist “Islamic State ideology,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Authorities are investigating a recent trip by the suspects to a part of the Philippines known for Islamist militancy, and two homemade ISIS flags were found in a vehicle registered to the younger suspect, police said.
It’s Australia’s worst mass shooting since a massacre almost 30 years ago saw the country introduce some of the world’s toughest gun laws.
Here’s what we know:
Multiple fatalities confirmed
15 people died when the gunman started shooting less than two hours into a Hanukkah event that was due to start at 5 p.m. local time. A 10-year-old girl, a rabbi, a Holocaust survivor and a young French national were among the victims of the shooting.
Matilda, 10, who was described by her aunt as a “very sweet, happy child, with a beautiful smile,” was wounded in the shooting and rushed to hospital, where doctors fought unsuccessfully to save her.
Another victim was a Holocaust survivor named Alex Kleytman, who died while shielding his wife Larisa from one of the gunmen’s bullets, according to the Jewish organization Chabad.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, who organized the event and served as assistant rabbi in Chabad of Bondi, and Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, secretary of the Sydney Beth Din, were also killed, according to Chabad. The group also identified Reuven Morrison, a Melbourne resident originally from the USSR, as one of the deceased victims.
A young French citizen named Dan Elkayam was also killed, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
The event was advertised to have “live entertainment, music, games and fun” for all ages. Families had gathered on the grass, swimmers were in the ocean, and witnesses remember seeing people dancing and banging drums.
Police shot and killed the elder suspect at the scene, while the younger suspect is in critical but stable condition at the hospital, and is likely