New Zealand Mosque Massacre: Families Search for Loved Ones After Attack
Daoud Nabi was among at least 49 people who were killed in the mass shooting
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Mass shootings in two New Zealand mosques killed at least 49 people and injured at least 48 others in what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern decried as a terrorist attack. Witnesses describe the moment of the shooting at one mosque.
Omar Nabi skipped Friday prayers because of work. But news of the attack at the Masjid Al Noor mosque in New Zealand's Christchurch filled Nabi with fear because his father had been there, NBC News reports.
Nabi rushed to the mosque as soon as he heard reports of the massacre, only to be told that his father, Daoud Nabi, 71, had thrown himself in front of another worshipper and been shot.
Daoud Nabi was among at least 49 people who were killed in the mass shooting at two mosques in the city, according to New Zealand police. Dozens more were wounded. A man in his late 20s was charged with murder, police said.
Other families were also desperately searching for news. Janna Adnan Ezat from Christchurch posted on Facebook that she has not been able to make contact with her son who was at one of the mosques.
“I don’t know whether my son Hussein El Omari is alive or dead,” she wrote. “The roads are blocked and we families are waiting at the hospital for word.”
A Bangladeshi police officer stands guard after two mosques have been attacked in New Zealand, as Muslims offer Friday prayers in Dhaka on March 15, 2019.
Omer Urer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
People attend a funeral ceremony in absentia for the victims of twin terror attacks on New Zealand mosques in Christchurch, on Friday, March 15, 2019, in Duzce, Turkey.
Fareed KhanAP
Pakistanis protest to condemn the New Zealand mosque shooting, in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, March 15, 2019. Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan has condemned attacks on two mosques in New Zealand, saying he blames rising "Islamophobia." Khan wrote Friday on Twitter that "terrorism does not have a religion."
People wait outside a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019. Many people were killed in a mass shooting at a mosque in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday, a witness said.
Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images
Hamzah Noor Yahaya, a survivor of the shootings at Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, stands in front of Christchurch Hospital at the end of a lockdown and waits to be picked up by his wife on Friday, March 15, 2019.
Armed police patrol outside a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019.
Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament in Wellington on Friday, March 15, 2019.
A man reacts as he speaks on a mobile phone outside a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019.
Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images
Armed police maintain a presence outside the Masijd Ayesha Mosque in Manurewa in Auckland, New Zealand on Friday, March 15, 2019. Four people are in custody following shootings at two mosques in Christchurch. New Zealanders have been urged to not attend evening prayers today following the attacks.
Police attempt to clear people from outside a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019.
An armed police officer watches as a man is taken by ambulance staff from a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019.
Ambulance staff take a man from outside a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019.
A man reacts as he speaks on a mobile phone near a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019.
