Australian police say seven men arrested in Sydney’s southwest on Thursday had ideological connections to the two gunmen accused of killing 15 people during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach the country’s deadliest mass shooting since Port Arthur.
New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson told ABC Radio on Friday that investigators had not yet established direct links between the detainees and the Bondi attackers.
“We don’t have definitive links … apart from potential commonality in some thinking,” he said, noting that the investigation remains in its early stages. He added that Bondi was among the locations the group had planned to visit.
National Gun Buyback Scheme Announced
In response to public outrage over the attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a nationwide gun buyback scheme aimed at removing “surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms” from circulation.
Albanese said the government expects hundreds of thousands of weapons to be collected and destroyed, calling it the largest effort of its kind since the landmark 1996 gun reforms introduced after the Port Arthur massacre.
“The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” he said.
The Bondi Attack
The shooting, carried out by Sajid Akram and his son Naveed, targeted hundreds of people celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach on Sunday evening. Authorities have described the attack as antisemitic in nature.
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