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New Zealand mosque shootings: 50 dead, no Vietnamese victims
Linh Pham 12:03, 2019/03/17
People around the world have been paying tributes to the victims which climb to 50 dead and 50 wounded.
No Vietnamese people have been claimed to be victims of the shocking massacre of Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday [March 15], Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has announced. 
 
The world stands beside New Zealand. Photo: Getty Images
The world stands beside New Zealand. Photo: Getty Images
The MOFA has asked the Vietnamese embassy in New Zealand to keep an eye on the case, which left 50 dead and 50 others wounded, the biggest massacre in New Zealand’s modern history. 

The Vietnamese embassy needs to keep in touch with local authorities to update the situation to provide citizen protection if needed, the MOFA said in a document after the shootings. 

Among the victims were six Pakistanis, four Syrians including a refugee couple their teenage sons, and three Jordanian citizens, according to CNN.
 
Suspect Brenton Tarrant. Photo: Yeshiva World
Suspect Brenton Tarrant. Photo: Yeshiva World
Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian, is the suspected shooter. New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said at a press conference on Sunday that only Brenton Tarrant has been charged with murder for the attack. Bush added that some others had been arrested but no evidence proved they were involved in the attack.

Gym manager Tracey Gray, former employer of the suspect, told CNN affiliate Nine News that “He never showed any extremes of extremist views or any crazy behavior.” Gray said Tarrant might have been radicalized during a trip to Europe and Asia in the early 2010s.

Brenton Tarrant had visited Pakistan, Turkey, the UAE, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Hungary, among others. 

Hotel owner Syed Israr Ahmed in Pakistan told CNN that Brenton Tarrant visited Pakistan in October 2018, saying he is a regular tourist. 

Witness Ahmed Khan described an armed man shot indiscriminately at worshipers.

Authorities said it only took police 36 minutes from the first report of gunshots to find and arrest the suspect.

After the attack, the New Zealand Police Association supported the country’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s calls to change the country’s gun laws.

New Zealand’s weapons legislation is considered more relaxed than most Western countries outside of the US. Gun owners do need a license but they aren’t required to register their guns -- unlike in neighboring Australia. That said, gun-inflicted deaths are relatively low in New Zealand.

“The only extremism that deserves attention is the Islamic one,” Italy’s Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini said when he was asked if attacks like the one in New Zealand could happen in his home country because of his aggressive, anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Remembrance
 
New Zealanders write tributes to the victims close to the Al Noor Mosque. Photo: CNN
New Zealanders write tributes to the victims close to the Al Noor Mosque. Photo: CNN
New Zealanders have been leaving tributes to the victims. Candles burn outside Al Noor mosque, where 41 people were killed on Friday to remember the victims. 

Other cities around the world have been marking the tragedy, with the Eiffel Tower in Paris going dark on Friday evening.

And the spire of New York’s One World Trade Center was lit in blue and red, the colors of New Zealand’s flag.
 
A group of people in Melbourne, Australia, took part in a vigil for the victims. They put out 49 prayer mats with candles for the 49 victims. Hundreds have turned out in Melbourne for a candlelight vigil to remember victims. 
 
Sydney opera house. Photo: Getty Images
Sydney opera house. Photo: Getty Images
Sydney’s iconic opera house is lit up in New Zealand colors – silver fern in Saturday night in response to the attack. 

Meanwhile, vigils have been held at mosques and community centers worldwide - many of which were surrounded by an increased security presence to prevent a follow-up attack.
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