Gunmen opened fire at a Jewish holiday celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing at least 11 people in what Australian officials described as a targeted antisemitic attack.

One of the suspected gunmen was also killed. A second was in critical condition and police were investigating whether a third gunman was involved, New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon told a media conference. Two police officers were among 29 people taken to hospital with injuries, he said.

Authorities said far more people would have been killed were it not for a bystander, identified by local media as fruit shop owner Ahmed al-Ahmed, 43, who was filmed charging a gunman from behind, grappling with him and wresting a rifle from his hands.

“There are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery,” said Chris Minns, premier of New South Wales where Sydney is located, calling the bystander “a genuine hero”.

A bomb-disposal unit was working on several suspected improvised explosive devices, Lanyon said. Mike Burgess, a top Australian intelligence official, said one of the suspected attackers was known to authorities but had not been deemed an immediate threat.

Hundreds of people had gathered on Sunday at Bondi, Australia’s best-known beach, for a Hanukkah event. Children were playing as music and bubbles filled the air. Then gunshots ripped through the celebration.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese convened a meeting of the country’s national security council and condemned the attack, saying the evil that was unleashed was “beyond comprehension”.

“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith,” he said.

People walk past a Christmas tree at the scene of the shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday. Reuters

Witnesses said the shooting at the famed beach, which was packed on a hot summer’s evening, lasted about 10 minutes, sending hundreds of people scattering along the sand and into nearby streets and parks. The police said around 1,000 people had attended the Hanukkah event.

“We all panicked and started running as well. So we left everything behind, like flip-flops, everything. We just ran through the hill,” said Bondi Junction resident Marcos Carvalho, 38, who had been packing up after a day at the beach when he heard what he estimated were 40-50 gunshots.

Bondi resident Grace Mathew said people ran past her and she heard gunshots.

“Initially you just think, it’s a beautiful day down by the beach,” she said. “You sort of think that people are just having a good time. Then more people ran past and said there’s a shooter, there’s a mass shooting and they’re killing people.”

Sunday’s shootings were the most serious of a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars in Australia since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.

The violence has unnerved many in the country, which has the world’s highest concentration of Holocaust survivors after Israel. Arsonists last year targeted a Jewish business and a synagogue, prompting calls for greater accountability.

Australia’s Jewish diaspora is small but deeply embedded in the wider community, with about 150,000 people who identify as Jewish in the country of 27 million. About one-third of them are estimated to live in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, including Bondi.

“If we were targeted deliberately in this way, it’s something of a scale that none of us could have ever fathomed. It’s a horrific thing,” Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told Sky News, adding his media adviser had been wounded in the attack.

Mass shootings are rare in Australia, one of the world’s safest countries. Sunday’s attack was the worst since 1996, when a gunman killed 35 people at a tourist site in the southern state of Tasmania.

“Antisemitism has no place in this world. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia,” US secretary of state Marco Rubio wrote on X.

Israel angry

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he had warned his Australian counterpart that the country’s policies fuel antisemitism.

Netanyahu said the shooting was “cold-blooded murder” and that antisemitism “spreads when leaders stay silent”.

“You must replace weakness with action,” he said.

One Israeli citizen was among those killed in the firing, the Israeli foreign ministry said.

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar blamed a failure to tackle antisemitism in Australia.

“These are the results of the antisemitic rampage in the streets of Australia over the past two years, with the antisemitic and inciting calls of ‘Globalise the Intifada’ that were realised today.”

Imams condemn

The Australian National Imams Council condemned the shooting in a statement: “These acts of violence and crimes have no place in our society. Those responsible must be held fully accountable and face the full force of the law.”

Modi ‘terror’ message

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday condemned the terrorist attack in Australia and expressed solidarity with the people of that country in their hour of grief.

“Strongly condemn the ghastly terrorist attack carried out today at Bondi Beach, Australia, targeting people celebrating the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah,” the Prime Minister said.

“On behalf of the people of India, I extend my sincere condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. We stand in solidarity with the people of Australia in this hour of grief,” he added.

Modi said India had “zero tolerance” for terrorism and supports the fight against all its forms and manifestations.