Canadian Finn Foster, backpacking with his girlfriend in Australia, says they were planning to watch the sunset on Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach when they heard about two dozen pops.
At first, they thought it might be fireworks but quickly realized the situation a few hundred metres away was serious and they were in danger.
“Everybody as a whole was just kind of in a freakout. It didn’t feel real at the moment,” 18-year-old Foster, who lives in Brantford, Ont., said in a phone interview.
“I had a big adrenalin rush, because I never thought I’d be in a real terrorist attack,”
The mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at the beach left at least 15 people dead and 38 wounded. One attacker was taken into custody and the other was fatally shot by police.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the shooting an act of antisemitism and terrorism.
Foster, who has been staying in a hostel close to the beach, said it had planned a barbecue for guests at the beach but the event was cancelled. He and his girlfriend, Hayden Lombardi, were on their way to McDonald’s before heading to the beach when the shots rang out.
Canadian witness recalls hearing ‘popping’ sounds, seeing people flee Sydney beach during shooting
When they realized it was gunfire, Foster said he grabbed Lombardi and they sprinted back to the hostel.
“Cars were pulling over. (People) were hopping out and grabbing their kids,” he said. “Stores were closing up and some stores were letting people in.
“As we got back to our hostel, we opened up the doors and let people in who were in distress and needed a place for shelter.”
He said police asked people on the sidewalks if they knew CPR. A Polish guest at the hostel ran to the scene and tried to resuscitate some of the victims.
Foster later went to help as well, he said, but by then the victims had been taken from the scene. Left behind were many of their belongings, as well as items from people who had fled.
“There was bikes everywhere — phones, wallets, strollers, food. People were at the bars, right, because we’re right near bar central. There were beers everywhere. It was just crazy. It almost looked like the apocalypse. Everybody’s stuff was there without them,” he said.
Police said the shooters were a man and his son. The father was killed by police while the son was wounded and taken to hospital.
Foster and his girlfriend were scheduled to fly to Brisbane on Monday night. He said he wasn’t sure what the airport in Sydney would be like.
A day later, the sound of helicopters filled the area and sections of Bondi Beach were closed. Some people were crying, added Foster, and many businesses remained shuttered.
“It’s gloomy. There’s no smiles — it’s a lot of sad faces, a lot of flowers. It’s just not really where you want to be right now,” he said.
There are 25 people still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre, 10 of them in critical condition. Three of them are patients in a children’s hospital.
Also among them is Ahmed al-Ahmed, who was captured on video tackling and disarming one assailant, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.
Those killed ranged in age from 10 to 87 years old. They were attending a Hanukkah event at Australia’s most famous beach Sunday when the gunshots rang out.
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 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare.
