The provisional toll is 49 victims attacks against two mosques in the city of Christchurch, in New Zealand.
A commando of four people, including a woman, would have hit, led by a twenty-eight-year-old Australian, Brenton Tarrant, who arrived in New Zealand precisely to train and carry out the attack. He said he is not a member of any organization, but has donated and interacted with many nationalist groups. He added that he chose the island because of its location, to demonstrate that even the most remote parts of the world are not free from "mass immigration". The man claimed responsibility for the shootings by leaving a anti-immigrant poster of 74 pages in which he explained who he is and the reason for his actions, which he calls a terrorist attack. The four attackers were allegedly stopped by the police, but there may also be accomplices.
The attacks took place around 13.40pm local time – 1.40am in Italy – and the toll is very heavy, but it could have been even worse. New Zealand police said they had defused a number of improvised explosive devices found in vehicles following the mosque shootings.
The first to be hit was the Al Noor mosque, where 300 people were praying at the time of the attack. Shortly after, the second attack on the Masjid mosque in the suburb of Linwood. In this case, according to the first rumors, charges of explosives may have been used.
The premier Jacinta Arden he said on live television: “It's one of New Zealand's darkest days. We are facing an unprecedented act of violence".
The massacre was broadcast live through a 17-minute video posted on Facebook and then removed from the social network.
According to reports from the Australian site News.com, the names of men who carried out attacks or historic battles against the Muslim community were written in white ink on the two machine guns used to carry out the massacre. Among them there is also the name of Luca Traini, the right-wing extremist who shot at some migrants in Macerata in 2018, wounding six people.
#ChristChurch attacker claims to have had brief contact with Anders Breivik and was inspired by Roof and others. pic.twitter.com/EO6IN74Gbn
— Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) 15 March 2019
