A Jewish community group warned police that a terror attack was “likely” just days before two gunmen killed 15 people in a mass shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach, an inquiry said yesterday.
Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram, his son, are accused of opening fire as Jewish families thronged Bondi Beach for a Hanukkah celebration in December last year.
Australia’s Jewish community “was the evident target of the attack,” a royal commission tasked with investigating the shooting said in an interim report.
Photo: AFP
The report detailed how, just days before the attack, a Jewish volunteer group had warned police about the threat of violence at Hanukkah celebrations.
“A terrorist attack against the NSW [New South Wales] Jewish community is likely and there is a high level of anti-Semitic vilification,” the Community Security Group wrote in an e-mail released by the inquiry.
The security group said they were told police could not provide dedicated officers for the festival, but would send mobile patrols to “check in and monitor the event.”
Jewish community leader Alex Ryvchin said that organizers were struck by a “general feeling of unrest” ahead of Hanukkah.
“The police are the ones that make decisions around resourcing, and it seems like this was not adequately done,” he told national broadcaster ABC. “We need to understand why those resourcing decisions were made.”
NSW State Premier Chris Minns said he took “responsibility” for failing to protect those who died.
“If we had known what was going to happen, we would have put an army down there,” Minns said.
Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said officers had considered the information provided by the Jewish group.
“There were police present on that occasion, there had been a risk assessment, and there were certainly roving police throughout the area on that evening,” Lanyon said.
The inquiry said that police should consider ramping up security arrangements at Jewish celebrations.
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