Shooting in Christchurch: 49 dead during a terrorist attack in two mosques – Live Updates | News from the world

At the mosque of Deans Avenue, we now know that 41 people have lost their lives. And at the Linwood Mosque, 7 lost their lives. One of the 40 people treated at Christchurch Hospital, one is now dead. The total number of people who died during this tragic event is therefore 49.

And our hearts go out to them and to all their families, to all their friends, to all their loved ones, and I want to badure everyone that we will do our best for them.

I would also like to add that until now, a person, a man under the age of 20, has been charged with murder and is expected to appear in Christchurch court tomorrow morning.

Three other people were apprehended. We believe that one of the people who were armed and who was on the scene may have had nothing to do with this incident, and the other two people arrested, again in possession of the property. firearms in the general environment, we are working to understand what their involvement is.

We recovered a number of guns in both scenes, Linwood Avenue and Deans Avenue.

I want to badure all New Zealanders that all police and emergency resources available with our other government agencies and the Defense Force are doing everything in their power to ensure the safety of our communities.

We have not received any other threat since we reacted to this incident. We work with a wide range of communities to provide support to all who need it.

We have staff across the country to ensure the safety of all. This includes our armed defenders and our special tactical groups around the country who are very vigilant and are present around all our mosques, to avoid any problem. As I said, the situation is changing.

We will continue to bring you as much information as possible. I will answer your questions in a minute if I can, but before that, I would like to give you the 0800 number allowing people to ask for more information, especially around their loved ones. This number is 0800115019.

I would also like to congratulate – and some of you have seen the courageous actions of police officers who responded to this incident on social media – they went beyond their communities to apprehend at least one of these offenders. I take my hat off to all my staff.

I am extremely proud of what they have done so far. Thank you.