Bondi Beach locals recount harrowing moments shots rang out
Traumatised Bondi shooting survivors have spent hours trapped inside businesses and homes as two gunmen allegedly stalked the beach and picked off innocent victims.
The death toll from one of Australia’s worst mass shootings has reached 15 victims, with at least 40 more injured.
More survival stories are emerging as Sydneysiders and visitors open up about the methods they were forced to take to survive.
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The owner of a cafe just moments away from the park and bridge where shots began ringing out has recounted sheltering dozens of people inside, not knowing when the massacre would end.
“We had people hiding in the cool room, we had people in the toilets, we had customers closing 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.”
After the actions of another good Samaritan, he had up to 100 people sheltering in his cafe.
“We had a Bondi women’s surfer, probably top three in Australia back then, and she came to visit, and she’s a schoolteacher, she opened the back door,” he added.
“She basically let 50-100 people in the back, and people were just taking shelter in the back, in the car park section.”
Tears were quick to flow from other survivors who recalled the moment a sunny day by the beach turned to terror.
“I was thinking, ‘Surely not, these things just don’t happen,” one woman told Newswire
“Then suddenly people were just charging towards you, like that scene in the Lion King.”
More to come.
Originally published as Bondi Beach locals recount harrowing moments shots rang out
