New Zealand cops ram his vehicle, drag him out and cuff him
Footage filmed by a passer-by shows the dramatic arrest of Australian killer Brenton Tarrant shortly after he gunned down people inside a mosque in New Zealand.
Tarrant, 28, who has been described as an Australian Brit, opened fire on muslim worshippers with 49 people reported killed and 48 wounded in shootings at two mosque locations in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier today.
There are reports of there being possibly more than one killer, but it is thought police are seen here arresting Tarrant.
Police had rammed his vehicle wth a squad car and surrounded the vehicle with their weapons raised before moving in towards his car.
Tarrant used high-powered weapons during the massacre and police are tentative as they approach him. The suspect is then seen being dragged from the car and pushed down onto the pavement where they cuff him.
The footage was filmed by eyewitness Nathan Cambus and posted on Twitter.
More footage of the arrest was also posted on Youtube (above).
Brenton Tarrant, live-streamed his rampage to Facebook from a head-mounted camera. The footage showed him firing indiscriminately at men, women and children from close range inside the Al-Noor mosque.
One man in his late twenties was arrested and charged with murder and will appear in court on Saturday morning, police confirmed. Two other men and one woman were detained nearby and firearms and explosive devices recovered,
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said. He said one of those detained was later released, while officers were working to determine if the other two were involved.
The attack, which came around the time people were attending the mosques for Friday prayers, was the deadliest in the nation’s history. Brenton appeared to have published a document before the attack outlining his intentions and in which he espoused far right and anti-immigrant ideology.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the man as an “extremist, right-wing” terrorist. Police Commissioner Bush confirmed that the man was not known in advance to either New Zealand or Australian security services.
The first report of an attack came from the Al Noor mosque in central Christchurch. Witnesses told local media they ran for their lives, and saw people bleeding on the ground outside the building. A second mosque in the suburb of Linwood was evacuated, but there were fewer details from that site.
Police also defused “a number of IEDs [explosive devices] attached to vehicles”, Mr Bush said.
In footage filmed by the gunman and live-streamed on Facebook he is seen driving towards the Al Noor mosque, parking around the corner from the entrance to the mosque, before taking weapons from his car, entering the mosque and firing at those inside.
Australian killer Brenton Tarrant live-streaming the attack on Facebook
One unnamed survivor told TV New Zealand he saw the gunman shoot a man directly in the chest. The attacker reportedly targeted the men’s prayer room in the mosque, then moved to the women’s room.
“What I did was basically just waiting and praying, God please, let this guy run out of bullets,” the witness said. “He came to this side, he shot this side, he went to another room and went to the ladies’ section and shot them. I just heard one of the ladies has died.”
A Palestinian man who asked not to be named told the AFP news agency he heard rapid gunfire and saw a man shot in the head.”I heard three quick shots, then after about 10 seconds it started again – it must have been an automatic, no one could pull a trigger that quick,” he said.
“Then people started running out. Some were covered in blood.”
A second mosque in the suburb of Linwood was also evacuated. The police commissioner said “multiple fatalities” were recorded at two locations.
Police advised Christchurch residents to remain off the streets and stay indoors and a lockdown was implemented at all schools in the area. The lockdown was later lifted and parents allowed to collect their children.
The Bangladesh national cricket team appeared to have narrowly escaped the shooting. A reporter following the team, which was due to play New Zealand in a now-cancelled test match on Saturday, tweeted that the team had “escaped from a mosque near Hagley Park where there were active shooters”.
Player Tamim Iqbal tweeted that the “entire team got saved from active shooters”.Bangladesh Cricket Board spokesman Jalal Yunus said most of the team had gone to mosque by bus and were about to go inside when the incident took place.”They are safe. But they are mentally shocked. We have asked the team to stay confined in the hotel,” he told the AFP news agency.
