Islamic State flags found after Sydney attack

Australian officials say the suspects, a father and son, were inspired by the militant group.

- CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY AND ROD MCGUIRK

AUDREY RICHARDSON Getty Images. A MENORAH is lighted as people attend a vigil at Bondi Beach in Sydney, where 15 people were killed Sunday.

A mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said Tuesday.

The suspects were a father and son, ages 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man, whom state officials named as Sajid Akram, was shot dead. His son was being treated at a hospital.

A news conference by political and law enforcement leaders Tuesday was the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects’ ideologies.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were based on evidence obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”

Indian police said Tuesday that the older suspect was originally from the southern city of Hyderabad and held an Indian passport.

They said he married a woman of European origin and migrated to Australia in 1998 in search of employment opportunities, maintaining little contact with his family in India.

“The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalization,” Telangana State Police Chief B. Shivadhar Reddy said in a statement.

There are 25 people still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre, 10 of them in critical condition. Three of them are patients in a children’s hospital.

Also among them is al Ahmed, who was captured on video tackling and disarming one assailant, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.

Those killed ranged in age from 10 to 87 years old. They were attending a Hanukkah event at Australia’s most famous beach Sunday when the gunshots rang out.