A young girl and two Holocaust survivors were among 15 people shot and killed by a father and his son at a Jewish Hanukkah festival gathering on Australia’s Bondi Beach.
The elder gunman, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, was killed in a shootout with police. His 24-year-old son, Naveed, is in a coma in hospital.
The victims in Sunday’s shooting were aged between 10 and 87.
Authorities have not named all of them, but the following 10 people have been publicly identified so far:
• Young girl ‘like sunshine’
Ten-year-old Matilda died in hospital after the shooting, with her aunt recounting how the girl’s six-year-old sister witnessed the attack.
“She was with her six-year-old sister, Summer. It was on her eyes, and she saw everything,” the girls’ aunt, Lina Chernykh, told Channel Seven television.
She is absolutely stressed and crying,” she said of the younger sister.
“I hope people remember Matilda like a beautiful, sweet child, beautiful like sunshine, like light in your life,” the aunt said.
“My family will never be the same.”
• Oldest victim
Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, 87, was the oldest person killed.
“We were standing and suddenly came the ‘boom boom’, and everybody fell down. At this moment, he was behind me, and at one moment, he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me,” his wife, Larisa, told The Australian.
Kleytman was a native of Ukraine and a Holocaust survivor, according to a website of the Chabad movement, which represents a branch of Hasidic Jews and organised the Bondi event.
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