Aziz, the hero who avoided a major massacre

As Brenton Tarrant advanced armed towards the mosque, killing those in his path, Abdul Aziz did not hide. Instead, he threw the first thing he could find, a posnet. He ran out and shouted "Come here!"

Aziz has been described as a hero for preventing other deaths during Friday prayers at Linwood Mosque in Christchurch, after he lured the terrorist into a cat-and-mouse chase, before driving him away at full speed in his car

However, Aziz – a 48-year-old Afghan, whose four children and dozens of people remained at the mosque while fighting Tarrant – does not believe he's a hero, which everyone would have done.

Tarrant is believed to have killed 42 people at Al Noor Mosque before traveling about five kilometers and attacking the Linwood mosque, where he killed eight others.

Alabi, the Imam of the Linwood Mosque, said the death toll would have been even heavier if it were not for Aziz. Alabi said he heard an outside voice around the 14th, when he stopped the prayer he was directing and peeked out the window. He saw a man wearing black military-style clothing and a helmet, brandishing a large rifle, and badumed that he was a policeman. Then he saw two corpses and heard the banger screaming vulgarities.

"I realized that it was something different, it's a murderer," he said.

He shouted to the congregation of 80 people to bend over. They doubted There was a shot, a window broke and a body fell, and people began to realize that it was real.

"Then this brother came in. He pursued it, and he managed to dominate it, and that's how we fled," said Alabi, referring to Aziz. "Otherwise, if he could have entered the mosque, he would probably have killed us all."