TRAGIC AND AWFUL

Tributes pour in for 15 dead as Scots Jewish community in call for police protection

- BY BILLY GADDI

A SCOTS fitness influencer has spoken of her terror after "hearing screaming" and narrowly missing the horrific mass shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

Lily Anderson, 20, from Renfrewshire, arrived in Australia 12 days ago to visit pal Abbi Taylor.

The trip turned into a nightmare when the pair realised they had been just moments away from the deadliest attack in the country since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre when 35 people died.

On Sunday, 16 people were killed, including one gunman, and 40 others were hospitalised with injuries after shots rang out at the beachfront.

Police said the attackers were father and son, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24. Officers later discovered "several" explosive devices at the scene.

Lily and Abbi had been at the popular beach just before the mass killing unfolded.

The personal trainer had even posted an Instagram story of herself running down the beach earlier that day.

Taking to Tik Tok to update her near-100k followers, Lily opened up about the terrifying moments as the horror unfolded.

She said: "Abbi and I are both safe. It's awful and so tragic.

"It's terrifying that's happened.

We are 10 minutes from there and we heard the screaming." Lily said it was a gut feeling that stopped them from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She added: "Abbi and I had the intuition and feeling that we couldn't be there and had to go.

I'm so grateful for that and being protected. I'm sending so much love to the families involved." Kian Bentley, 22, from Stirling, also told how he helped a "stampede" escape out of an open-air cinema he was working at after hearing the gunshots.