Christchurch massacre: PM confirms children among shooting victims – as it happened

As night falls in New Zealand we will now be wrapping up the live-blog for today. Thanks for following.

• Children are among the 49 killed in yesterday’s terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said
• The main suspect intended to continue his attack and had modified weapons but was arrested by two community police officers, she said. There were two other firearms were in his vehicle and he was arrested 36 minutes after the first emergency call
  
• He is facing one count of murder but there will be further charges
• Ardern said the investigation was ongoing but authorities believed there was only “one primary perpetrator.”
  
• Thirty-nine people are in hospital, 11 are in intensive care, ranging from children to the elderly
• A 28-year-old Australian man, Brenton Tarrant, has appeared in court on Saturday morning charged with murder. No application for bail was made and he is due to appear in court again on 5 April.
• New Zealanders have rallied around the Muslim community as heartbreaking details continued to emerge about those killed and injured.
• Daoud Nabi, a native of Afghanistan; Syrian refugee Khaled Mustafa; and four-year-old Abdullahi Dirie, who was at the mosque with his father and four siblings, are all said to be among the dead, as well as a 14-year-old boy who was among the injured but later died in hospital, according to his father.
  
• Attorney general David Parker has reportedly told an Auckland rally the government will move to ban semi-automatic weapons. Earlier, Ardern has said the nation’s gun laws will change after it emerged the suspect had a firearms licence and began legally stockpiling weapons in 2017. He was carrying two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns at the time of the attack.
• Four for the 49 people who were killed died on the way to hospital.
• A heightened police presence is visible across the country, including at mosques and public events, and the public have been urged to remain vigilant. Commissioner Mike Bush said: “We are not searching for anyone posing a threat but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.” The main suspect, one of four who were initially arrested, was taken into custody 36 minutes after the first emergency calls came in.
• Leaders from around the world, including the Queen as head of state, have offered their condolences to those affected. Donald Trump offered sympathy and comfort during a call to Ardern but has separately said white nationalism is “not really” a growing threat when asked about the issue in light of Friday’s shooting.
• Australian senator Senator Fraser Anning who blamed “fears over the increasing muslim presence” for the attack was pelted with an egg by a teenage boy at a press conference

16 Mar 201903.29 EDT

Calla Wahlquist

Here is our news wrap of today’s developments

New Zealand will ban semi-automatic weapons after the worst mass killing in the nation’s history left 49 people dead and another 48 injured.

As the nation reeled following the attack on two mosques in the South Island city of Christchurch, New Zealand attorney general David Parker said that the weapons would be outlawed.

Speaking on Saturday in Christchurch, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern said the suspect charged over the killings intended to “continue with his attack” when he was intercepted by police.

She said the man was arrested by two “rural community cops” 36-minutes after the first emergency call was made on Friday and was still an active shooter.

“There were two other firearms in the vehicle that the offender was in and it absolutely was his intention to continue with his attack,” she told reporters in Christchurch on Saturday.

Ardern said children were caught up in the attack and one of the injured was a two-year-old boy.

Australian Brendon Tarrant,28, appeared in court on Saturday charged with one count of murder in relation to the massacre and has been remanded in custody until 5 April. He is expected to face more charges.

Mel Davey in Christchurch has spoken to Muslims grieving after the attacks. Here is her report:

The wife of missing Palestinian heart doctor Amjad Hamid, who was at the mosque when the shootings happened, has told the New Zealand Herald she believes her husband is dead.

Hamid’s wife Hanan described her husband as a “very kind man”. She said they had emigrated to Christchurch 23 years ago.

A message left amongst the flowers outside Deans Avenue Mosque

The lockdown of Hawke’s Bay Hospital in Hastings has ended.

A police spokeswoman confirmed the lockdown had ended just after 6.30pm following “extensive enquires” at the hospital and surrounding areas.

“It has been determined there is no threat to hospital staff or the public.”

Syrian Solidarity New Zealand spokesman Ali Akil said that Syrian refugee Khaled Mustafa, who had arrived in New Zealand with his family just a few months ago, was amongst those killed while praying at the Deans Ave mosque in Christchurch on Friday with his two sons, one of whom is injured and the other missing.

Akil said he had spoken to Mustafa’s wife, who was “devastated and deeply horrified”.

The family had “survived atrocities” in Syria and “arrived here in a safe haven only to be killed in the most atrocious way”, said Akil.

“They were just looking for a safe place. Unfortunately we can’t claim that New Zealand is a safe place anymore.”

The chief of surgery for the Christchurch District Health Board, Greg Robertson, said that seven people who had been treated for injuries at Christchurch hospital have been discharged.

Of the 39 people still receiving treatment for gunshot wounds, 11 are in still in Intensive Care

In response to the Christchurch attacks, the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, accused western governments of encouraging Islamophobia on Friday.

In a statement carried by the official government website, Rouhani said the shootings showed the need for “all out confrontation against ... the Islamophobia pervasive in the west which is unfortunately encouraged by some western governments”.

Rouhani promised Iran’s foreign ministry would “diligently” follow the “arrest and trial of the perpetrators of this heinous act”.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, also blamed “western democracies” for the attack.

“Western hypocrisy of defending demonisation of Muslims as ‘freedom of expression’ MUST end,” Zarif tweeted.

An Australian senator who blamed the New Zealand terror attack on Muslim immigration has been pelted with an egg in Melbourne.

Senator Fraser Anning was halfway through a press conference when a teenager threw an egg at him. Reportedly, the senator responded by hitting the boy on the head. The teenager was then tackled to the ground by the police and then led away.

Anning was slammed yesterday after saying the mosque attack highlighted a “growing fear over an increasing Muslim presence” in Australian and New Zealand communities.

The Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al-Arabiya is reporting one of two citizens of the kingdom wounded in the New Zealand mosque attack has died.

The channel, citing his family, said Mohsen al-Muzaini had succumbed to the wounds he suffered in the shooting Friday.

Hawkes Bay Hospital in New Zealand is currently on lockdown after a “security threat”

The 14-year-old boy who was among the injured in the attack has died, his father has confirmed.

Sayyad Milne, a student at Cashmere High School, had been at the mosque with his mother and friends, as he was every Friday.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, his devastated father John Milne said: “I’ve lost my little boy, he’s just turned 14. I haven’t heard officially yet that he’s actually passed but I know he has because he was seen. [I’m] keeping it together and tears are helping. people are helping. Just by being here, it is helping.”

“I remember him as my baby who I nearly lost when he was born. Such a struggle he’s had throughout all his life. he’s been unfairly treated but he’s risen above that and hes very brave. A brave little soldier. It’s so hard... to see him just gunned down by someone who didn’t care about anyone or anything.

Milne said that at the mosque his son had been carrying a sign which read: “Everyone love everyone.”