Bondi Beach attack: Australia launch new 'gun buyback' scheme after deadly mass shooting

Police officer removes tape from Bondi Beach shooting scene (Image: Getty)

Australia plans to introduce a national gun buyback scheme after a shooting at Bondi Beach left 15 dead and dozens injured.

A father and son were identified as the suspects who opened fire on Jewish families celebrating Hanukkah at a park alongside the famous beach on the evening of Sunday, December 14, in the largest massacre on Australian soil in almost three decades.

The son, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, has been charged with 59 offences, while his 50-year-old father, Sajid, was shot dead by police at the scene.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday, December 19, said during a press conference that the country's gun laws needed to be strengthened.

"The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets," Albanese said.

"We know that one of these terrorists held a firearm licence and had six guns, in spite of living in the middle of Sydney's suburbs," he added. "There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns."

Australia's Prime Minister Albanese holds a press conference (Image: Getty)

According to reports, Naveed Akram, was placed on a watchlist in 2019 and was believed to have pledged allegiance to the IS terrorist group, the Australian Broadcast Corporation reported. A police report showed that his father held licences for recreational hunting and owned the guns despite his son's record of being known to authorities.

Albanese said during the press conference that there are more than four million firearms in Australia, more than at the time of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in which 37 people lost their lives.

The buyback scheme will be the country's largest since the Port Arthur massacre and comes alongside plans tighten gun control measures, including limiting the firearms a person can own and making Australian citizenship a requirement for gun licensing.

Albanese said the scheme would be funded on a "50-50 basis" shared with Australian states and territories.

A man looks tributes left my mourners at Bondi Beach (Image: Getty)

The tragedy took place in Sydney, located in the New South Wales (NSW) territory. NSW Health Friday said that 15 people were still receiving medical care and four people remain in a critical but stable condition.

Naveed is accused of murder and terrorism charges, as well as 40 counts of causing wounding or grievous bodily harm with intent to murder. Discharging a firearm intending to cause grievous bodily harm, a public display of a prohibited terrorist organisation symbol and placing an explosive in or near a building with intent to cause harm are among the charges he faces.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said on Friday that his government plans to introduce laws to "restrict the authorisation of public assemblies in designated areas following a terrorist incident". This ban would last for 14 days and could be extended in two-week increments for up to three months.

NSW Police lifted the crime scene at the beach on Thursday and patrols has been upped in Bondi and other key locations across Sydney.