Live Updates: Police Say Jewish Community Targeted in Deadly Sydney Attack

Live Updates: Police Say Jewish Community Targeted in Deadly Sydney Attack

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia called the shooting on Bondi Beach a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community during a Hanukkah celebration. At least one gunman is dead and another is in custody.

 

Updated

Dec. 14, 2025, 9:35 a.m. ET10 minutes ago

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/12/14/world/sydney-bondi-beach-shooting

 

Yan Zhuang and Victoria Kim

Victoria Kim reported from Sydney, Australia.

 

Here’s the latest.

At least 11 people were killed by gunmen who targeted a Jewish holiday celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday, in what the authorities called a terrorist attack. One of two suspected shooters was also killed, the police said, and the other was said to be wounded and in custody.

 

Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon of the New South Wales Police Force said on Sunday evening that officers had found what they believed to be several improvised explosive devices in a nearby vehicle linked to the suspect who was killed. Bomb disposal units were at the scene, he said.

 

He also said that the police were looking into whether any “third offender” was involved. “We will make sure that we prevent any further activity,” he said.

 

Hundreds of people had gathered earlier 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.

 

The rare mass shooting sent the crowds scattering. Emergency workers were seen transporting a person on a stretcher after the shooting. Video from the scene broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the public broadcaster, showed police officers fanning out in an outdoor area where a gun was lying near a tree.

 

“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia said. He added: “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”

 

The shooting on Sunday is the latest in a series of antisemitic attacks in Australia that intensified last year. 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.

 

Chris Minns, the premier of the state of New South Wales, praised the actions of a bystander who was shown in social media footage tackling one of the gunmen from behind and wresting control of his firearm. He said the man likely saved the lives of many people.

 

Commissioner Lanyon said the shooter who was killed had been previously known to the police.

 

Robert Gregory, the chief executive of the Australian Jewish Association, said members of the community told him the shooting had targeted an event hosted by the Chabad organization at the beach to observe the Hanukkah holiday.

 

Some leaders and organizations from the Jewish community said on Sunday that their warnings about those calls had not been heeded.

 

Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial center, had raised concerns about the “dangerous rise” of antisemitism in Australia in personal meetings with the premiers of Victoria and New South Wales.

 

Here’s what we know:

 

Initial reports: Multiple people called police at about 6:45 p.m. to report that multiple people had been shot. The gunmen emerged from a small silver hatchback parked by a footbridge near the beach and begun firing into the crowd celebrating Hanukkah, according to a witness who was said he was walking a few dozen yards from the shooters.

 

Hanukkah celebration: Witnesses have said the gunmen were targeting the celebration marking the first night of Hanukkah. They weren’t shooting at everyone, said the witness, a teenager who asked not to be named for safety reasons.

 

Rare shooting: Minutes after the shooting, the New South Wales police issued an alert asking people to stay away from the beach, which is over 3,000 feet long. Shootings are rare in Australia, a country with one of the lowest gun-related death rates in the developed world.

 

Isabel Kershner and Damien Cave contributed reporting.