Timeline: How the Bondi Beach mass shooting unfolded
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
The Dec 14 attack claimed the lives of 15 people at Bondi Beach, where crowds had gathered for a Jewish festival.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
Sydney – Australia is reckoning with its deadliest mass shooting in decades after a father and son opened fire on crowds gathered for a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach in Sydney.
Using newly released police allegations, witness testimony and official statements, AFP pieced together a timeline of the Dec 14 attack that killed 15 people and wounded dozens.
Naveed Akram, 24, an Australian-born citizen, is accused of joining his 50-year-old father Sajid Akram in a shooting spree aimed at Jewish crowds gathered to celebrate Hanukkah.
Teenage ISIS supporter
Naveed Akram first caught the eye of Australia’s intelligence agency in 2019, when he was a teenager allegedly rubbing shoulders with supporters of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, in Sydney.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said two of Naveed’s associates were later jailed, but he was not considered a serious threat and largely fell off the radar.
Training
The police alleged video found on Naveed’s mobile phone from late October 2025 shows the father and son training, “firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner” in the countryside, possibly in New South Wales.
In the same month, the police said, mobile video shows them in black T-shirts in front of an ISIS flag alongside four long-barrelled guns and rounds of ammunition.
Airbnb hideaway
The police said Naveed made an online booking on Oct 20 for one room in a five-bedroom Airbnb house located in the south-western Sydney suburb of Campsie, reserving it from Dec 2 to Dec 21.
Philippines trip
Indian-born Sajid, who entered Australia on a visa in 1998 and his son Naveed booked a trip to the southern Philippines for November.
The purpose of their visit remains unclear.
GV Hotel staff in Davao City have told AFP the pair arrived on Nov 1 and stayed for 28 days, leaving their small room only for short periods. Philippine detectives are poring over CCTV video
Gone fishing
Naveed told his family before the shooting that he was taking his father on a fishing trip to Jervis Bay, about two hours south of Sydney.
“Anyone would wish to have a son like my son... he’s a good boy,” his mother, Verena, told local media.
Two days before the shooting
CCTV images near Bondi Beach from 9.20pm on Dec 12 allegedly show the father and son parking for suspected “reconnaissance and planning of a terrorist attack”.
According to police, the pair walked to the same footbridge from where they are accused of firing into crowds two days later.
Early hours of Dec 14
At 2.16am local time on Dec 14, the police alleged, CCTV shows them leaving the Airbnb home and placing weapons hidden under blankets in a 2001 Hyundai Elantra car registered to Naveed.
According to the police, they packed two single-barrel shotguns, a Beretta rifle, three pipe bombs, one tennis ball bomb and one large explosive device – as well as two ISIS group flags.
They then returned to their lodgings.
Driving to Bondi Beach
At 5.09pm, the CCTV captures the suspects leaving the Airbnb and driving towards Bondi, the police said. Naveed wore a black T-shirt and black pants. His father wore a black T-shirt and white pants.
The police said the car was tracked by cameras until it was parked at Campbell Parade by a footbridge at the beach at 6.50pm, and the pair allegedly placed ISIS flags on the inside of the front and rear windscreens.
They are accused of removing three firearms, the pipe bombs and the tennis ball bomb before moving towards the footbridge.
The police said the pipe bombs and tennis ball bomb were thrown towards the crowds – but they could not say which suspect threw them. The pipe bombs were allegedly viable but did not detonate.
A short time later, the police alleged, Sajid and Naveed Akram “armed with the three firearms, began shooting towards the crowd”.
Panic
Thousands of beachgoers dropped everything and fled for their lives as the gunshots rang out.
“We are still asking people in the area to take shelter until we can determine what is happening,” the police said on social media shortly after 7pm.
A team of off-duty lifeguards sprinted across the sand to drag children to safety.
Others much closer to the gunmen sought whatever cover they could find.
Taking shelter
Churches, bars and restaurants threw their doors open to shelter the panicked crowds.
Frenchman Alban Baton, 23, hid for several hours with other customers in a grocery store cool room.
At around that time, Sajid Akram left a footbridge that offered a commanding view of the area and advanced towards the festival.
As Sajid fired into the crowd, shopkeeper Ahmed Al Ahmed – who had been getting coffee with friends – approached him from behind and tackled him in a courageous act broadcast around the world.
Mr Ahmed wrestled the gun away before pointing it at the assailant, who then backed away.
Mr Ahmed was shot twice, but it is not clear when or by whom.
Police arrive
Armed police arrived about 10 minutes into the shooting as Sajid rejoined his son on the footbridge.
Sajid was killed in an exchange of fire with the police. Naveed allegedly kept shooting until he was shot in the abdomen, hospitalised and charged with offences including terrorism and 15 murders.
Witnesses cheered as he fell to the ground.
Aftermath
Sirens blared as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was frantically administered to the bodies strewn across the beachfront.
One witness described it as a “war zone”.
At around 9.36pm, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns declared the mass shooting as a terrorist attack.
The authorities confirmed the next morning that 15 people were killed
