At least 49 people have been killed and 20 seriously injured after gunmen opened fire in two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch Friday, a coordinated and unprecedented attack that has shocked the usually peaceful nation.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the incident a terrorist attack in a Friday press conference, saying the suspects held "extremist views" that have no place in New Zealand or the world.
Forty-one people were killed at the al Noor mosque on Deans Avenue, New Zealand's Police Commissioner Mike Bush said Friday evening local time. Seven people died at the Linwood mosque on Linwood Avenue, and one person died from their injuries in hospital.
Both mosques are in Christchurch's city center and police have placed the two locations on lockdown.
A total of 48 patients, including young children with gunshot wounds, have been admitted to Christchurch hospital for treatment.
New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said four people have been taken into custody -- three men and one woman. Police do not believe there are any other suspects but said it was still an open investigation.
Bush said that a male in his late 20s has been charged with murder and will appear at the Christchurch court Saturday morning local time.
One of the four apprehended at the scene was in possession of firearms but police said they may have had nothing to do with incident. Two others were also arrested in possession of firearms and police are still trying to understand their involvement, Bush said. None of the four had been on any security watch lists prior to the attack.
Two improvised explosive devices were attached to a vehicle as part of the attack. One device has been disabled and authorities are working on the other.
"This goes to the seriousness of the situation," Bush said.
A number of weapons were also recovered at both the Linwood and Dean Avenue locations.
My warmest sympathy and best wishes goes out to the people of New Zealand after the horrible massacre in the Mosques. 49 innocent people have so senselessly died, with so many more seriously injured. The U.S. stands by New Zealand for anything we can do. God bless all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2019
Police were still treating the incident as ongoing into Friday evening local time and urged Christchurch residents to stay indoors and monitor the police website and social media.
The situation was also considered as not limited to Christchurch and Bush asked "anyone who was thinking of going to a mosque anywhere in New Zealand today not to go. To close your doors until you hear from us again," he said.
In a press conference, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attack as "one of New Zealand's darkest days."
"What has happened here is an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence," she said, adding that the attackers have "no place in New Zealand."
"For now my thoughts and I'm sure the thoughts of all New Zealanders are with those who have been affected their families," she said.
Police said they have mobilized every national police resource to respond to the incident.
Attack broadcast live on social media
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that at least one of the individuals taken into custody is an Australian born citizen. He called shooting as being at hands of a "extremist right wing, violent terrorist" at a press conference Friday.
Ardern confirmed that one of the attackers was Australian.
Authorities said that they "will not be discussing the offenders' possible motivations or the causes of this incident" at this stage.
However, in a social media post just before the attack, an account that is believed to belong to one of the attackers posted a link to an 87-page manifesto that was filled with anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim ideas and explanations for an attack. The manifesto was not signed.
In addition, police are aware of a video shared online, and broadcast live during the attack, that purports to show a gunman walking into an unnamed mosque and opening fire.
"We would strongly urge that the (video) link not be shared. We are working to have any footage removed," the New Zealand police said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Facebook New Zealand, Mia Garlick, said videos that appeared to show the Christchurch shootings were quickly taken down.
"New Zealand Police alerted us to a video on Facebook shortly after the livestream commenced and we removed both the shooter's Facebook account and the video. We're also removing any praise or support for the crime and the shooter or shooters as soon as we're aware," she said.
CNN has not been able to independently confirm any information about any of the attackers and the alleged video at this stage.
Gunman opened fire 'for ten to 15 minutes"
Armed police were deployed after first receiving reports of the shootings at 1:40 p.m. Friday local time. It is the busiest day for many mosques around the world when Muslims convene for Friday prayers.
Speaking to CNN, witness Mohan Ibn Ibrahim said he was inside the mosque when the shooting began and that he heard the gunman "continuously shooting for ten to 15 minutes."
"It's a big mosque and there were more than 200 people inside. The gunmen came from the backside. Gunshots went on for a long time. We had to jump the wall to escape. I saw lots of broken glass and bricks on the backside of the mosque," he said.
"I came to the street I saw one person got shot on his chest," he said, adding that the ambulance and police then arrived on the scene.
He said that he had a friend in another mosque in the area had told him a gunman had opened fire there as well and five people were dead.
"I could not contact two of my friends who are in the mosque as well," he said.
One witness, who did not want to be named, said he was driving by the scene and saw a man with a "with his 3 or 4-year-old daughter" who had been shot in the back.
"He was screaming like get her to the hospital and the ambulance couldn't come in until it was secured so I just got my truck and loaded up him, and his daughter, and this other guy had been shot in the leg, and took them to the hospital," he said.
One man outside the mosque said that he prayed that the gunman would "run out of bullets."
"I was thinking that he must run out bullets you know, so what I did was basically waiting and praying to God, oh God please let this guy run out of bullets," he said. He said a man told him to remain still when the gunman shot the man "straight in the chest."
School lockdown lifted
Christchurch was put on lockdown with all schools and council buildings shut and roads closed across the city.
By 6 p.m. local time New Zealand police said the lockdown on schools had been lifted.
The shooting at the mosque on Deans Avenue next to Hagely Park, is near to Cathedral Square, where children were taking part in a global protest to raise awareness for climate change.
"If your child was attending the climate change protest in Cathedral Square and you want to check if they are in the Civic Offices, please call the Council Contact Centre on 03-941-8999," Christchurch City Council said.
Christchurch is a coastal city of 404,500 residents. It is the second most-populous city in New Zealand behind Auckland and Wellington. It has an agricultural economy.
In 2010 and 2011 the city suffered a series of devastating earthquakes, with the most destructive at 6.3 magnitude, which killed nearly 200 people and destroyed thousands of buildings.
Just 1% of New Zealand's population of almost five million are Muslim, according to government statistics, less than 50,000 people in 2013.
Journalist Chris Lynch, a radio host on New Zealand station ZB Radio, told CNN that one of the shootings had occurred at "the biggest mosque in all of Christchurch."
He described Christchurch as a "very peaceful city" that is still getting over the devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake that hit in 2011.
"That (earthquake) brought all the skyscraper buildings down and this is one of the reasons why people are fearful, I feel," he told CNN.
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