Bondi Beach locals recount harrowing moments shots rang out
Survivors of the Bondi attack, in which two gunmen allegedly sneaked onto the beach and killed innocent victims, were trapped in businesses and homes for hours.
The death toll has reached 15 and at least 40 people have been injured in one of Australia’s worst mass shootings.
More survival stories are emerging as Sydneysiders and visitors tell us about the methods they were forced to use to survive.
The owner of the cafe, a few minutes away from the park and bridge, where gunshots started to sound, said that he kept dozens of people inside without knowing when the massacre would end.
“We had people hiding in the cold room, we had people in the toilets, we had customers closing the doors,” the owner of Cafe Bondi told the ABC.
“We had a pregnant lady, I thought she was going to give birth inside the shop.”
Following the actions of another good Samaritan, his cafe housed up to 100 people.
“We had a female Bondi surfer who was probably in the top three in Australia at the time and she came to visit us and she’s a teacher, she opened the back door,” he added.
“It was basically allowing 50 to 100 people in the back, and people were just sheltering in the parking lot in the back.”
Tears flowed quickly as other survivors remembered the moment a sunny day at the beach turned into terror.
“I was thinking, ‘Of course not, these things just don’t happen,'” one woman told Newswire.
“Then suddenly people started charging towards you, like that scene in The Lion King.”
More to come.
