Bondi beach was a laid-back haven before a mass shooting horror unfolded

SYDNEY (AP) — It was a beautiful summer evening at Sydney's famous Bondi Beach, thronged on Sunday by thousands of people soaking up the lingering warmth or taking sunset dips in the sparkling sea. Nearby, a Hanukkah celebration attracted families of all faiths, drawn in by face painting for children, ice cream, an outdoor movie and a petting zoo.

Then mayhem erupted.

For minute after minute shots rang out as people ran screaming, pulling each other into buildings, under tables and down alleyways, their beach towels, picnic blankets and flip flops strewn behind them as they fled.

The violence horrified Australians not only because of its scale and the antisemitic extremism behind it, but also because it unfolded at a cultural and environmental landmark that has long represented the country's cheeky, friendly and relaxed way of life.

Bondi is Australia’s most famous beach. It's the backdrop of a long-running reality television series about local lifeguards called “Bondi Rescue.” It’s also popular on Christmas day with foreign backpackers who flock to celebrate on the sand.

The beach is well known for its election day fashion too. By tradition, some Australians visiting the Bondi polling place to vote arrive clad only in tight-fitting swim briefs known as Budgy Smugglers, with news photographers jostling to capture the most irreverent shots.

Sunday night began in that spirit, with children enjoying rides and bubble blowing at the event, called Chanukah by the Sea. Then two men, a father and son, began indiscriminately gunning down men, women and children.

Those killed were aged between 10 and 87. One was a Holocaust survivor, the Australian newspaper reported.

Rebecca, 33, who declined to give her surname because she feared reprisals, was with her husband and two children when gunshots erupted. In tears the morning after the attack, she described how she shielded her 5-year-old son with her body under a table.

“I was just praying to God, ‘Please, don’t let us die. Please just keep my son safe,’” she told The Associated Press.

A man lying inches from her was shot in the chest. Rebecca’s 65-year-old mother in law used a piece of cardboard to apply pressure to his wound but the man died.

“One lady was to my side, and she was an elderly woman who couldn’t get down on the floor and they just shot her,” Rebecca said.

The shots went on and on. In footage supplied to AP by a member of the public who filmed it from their nearby hotel room, gunfire can be heard for at least 7 minutes, totaling dozens of blasts.

The violence provoked terror at the beach, in part because most Australians don't come into close contact with guns.

One beachgoer, Eleanor, who declined to give her surname, told the AP that she was walking at Bondi when the shots began and ran, fully clothed, into the ocean. On Monday, she plucked her sunglasses from a pile of abandoned belongings that lined the beach.

Bondi is an affluent suburb close to downtown Sydney and part of the Waverley local government area, which is the center of Sydney’s Jewish life. A knife attack last year at the nearby Bondi Junction shopping mall was initially feared to be an antisemitic attack, but authorities ruled out any political motive.

In that episode, law enforcement shot dead Joel Cauchi, who had a history of mental illness, after he stabbed to death six people and wounded another 12 at the complex on a busy Saturday in April.

Mass shootings in Australia are rare. The death toll from Sunday’s massacre is the highest since a mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996, that made it all but impossible for Australians to obtain rapid-fire rifles.

The authorities said Monday that they had recovered six guns that were legally owned by one of the shooters, a 50-year-old man who was shot dead. His 24-year-old son was being treated at a hospital Monday.

The men haven’t been named by officials. But their motive appeared clear, Australia’s leaders said: a targeted attack on Australian Jews during joyful celebrations that marked the beginning of Hanukkah.

“It’s the Jewish community. We’re all family we’re all one," said Rebecca, who lives at Bondi with her family. "We’re such a strong, loving community.”

She felt abandoned by the authorities, who she said had “turned a blind eye” to rising antisemitism in Australia. What the attack says about the country and how Australia will be changed by it, was a central preoccupation for commentators and political leaders on Monday morning.

In the aftermath of the violence, however, Australians also hailed the bravery of those who ran into the fray to help. They included a fruit seller identified by local news outlets as Ahmed al Ahmed, who appeared to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man's weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.

The famous surf lifeguards of Bondi Beach are trained to save struggling swimmers. On Sunday they ran toward the gunfire, barefoot and clutching first aid kits as they sought to help the victims, Australian news outlets reported.

On a Monday morning, the beach would usually be teeming with people — jogging, swimming, surfing and promenading with takeaway coffees. Under a gray sky and intermittent drizzle, this Monday was eerily quiet.

Ashen-faced locals walked around in a daze, led by their dogs. Abandoned blankets, chairs and coolers were strewn across the grassy slope overlooking the sea, where moviegoers had been watching an outdoor cinema film when the gunshots began.

“It’s really sad because Bondi is really (as) much about community and about people getting together," Heather Norland, who was walking back from dinner with her husband and children when they heard the gunshots, told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Janine Hall and her daughter on Monday laid flowers at a growing tribute spot overlooking the beach before heading down to the sand to swim.

“I hope it’s an aberration and not the start of a change,” she told the AP, referring to countries where mass shootings were common, such as the United States. “Everyone keep their heads and don’t fight hatred with more hatred, because that’s just a one-way ticket to nowhere, for everybody.”

Robert, who declined to give his last name, has lived in Bondi for 17 years.

“Australia is untouched by a lot of things,” he said Monday. “No one was expecting this.”

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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington and McGuirk from Melbourne.

A couple embrace a day after a shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Belongings sit piled up after a shooting the day prior at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

People walk along Sydney's Bondi Beach a day after a mass shooting Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Personal belongings are left on a grassy area in the early morning following a shooting Sunday at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A man looks at belongings stacked up following a shooting the day prior at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was convicted in a landmark national security trial in the city’s court on Monday, which could send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Three government-vetted judges found Lai, 78, guilty of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiracy to publish seditious articles. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Lai, 78, was arrested in August 2020 under a Beijing-imposed national security law that was implemented following massive anti-government protests in 2019. During his five years in custody, Lai has been sentenced for several lesser offenses, and appears to have grown more frail and thinner.

Among the attendees were Lai’s wife and son, and Hong Kong’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen. Lai pressed his lips and nodded to his family before being escorted out of the courtroom by guards.

Lai’s trial, conducted without a jury, has been closely monitored by the U.S., Britain, the European Union and political observers as a barometer of media freedom and judicial independence in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

His verdict is also a test for Beijing’s diplomatic ties. U.S. President Donald Trump said he has raised the case with China, and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said his government has made it a priority to secure the release of Lai, who is a British citizen.

The founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was convicted on two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, in addition to one count of conspiracy to distribute seditious publications.

Under Hong Kong's sweeping national security law, the collusion charge could result in a sentence ranging from three years in jail to life imprisonment, depending on the offense's nature and his role in it. The sedition charge carries a maximum of two years’ imprisonment. A four-day mitigation hearing was set to begin Jan. 12 for Lai to argue for a shorter sentence.

The Apple Daily was a vocal critic of the Hong Kong government and the ruling Chinese Communist Party. It was forced to shut in 2021 after police raided its newsroom and arrested its senior journalists, with authorities freezing its assets.

During Lai’s 156-day trial, prosecutors accused him of conspiring with senior executives of Apple Daily and others to request foreign forces to impose sanctions or blockades and engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China.

The prosecution also accused Lai of making such requests, highlighting his meetings with former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in July 2019 at the height of the protests.

It also presented 161 publications, including Apple Daily articles, to the court as evidence of conspiracy to publish seditious materials, as well as social media posts and text messages.

Reading from an 855-page verdict, Judge Esther Toh said that the evidence showed Lai had been thinking about what leverage the U.S. could use against China long before the security law and said he extended “constant invitations” to the U.S. to help bring down the Chinese government. She said he used helping the people Hong Kong as an excuse.

She said the court was satisfied that Lai was the “mastermind” of the conspiracies and that the only reasonable inference from the evidence was that Lai’s intent was to seek the downfall of the ruling Communist Party even at the sacrifice of the people of China and Hong Kong.

Lai testified for 52 days in his own defense, arguing that he had not called for foreign sanctions after the sweeping security law was imposed in June 2020.

His legal team also argued for freedom of expression.

As the trial progressed, Lai’s health appeared to be deteriorating.

Lai’s lawyers in August told the court that he suffered from heart palpitations. His daughter Claire told The Associated Press that her father has become weaker and skinnier, and lost some of his nails and teeth. She also said he suffered from infections for months, along with constant back pain, diabetes, heart issues and high blood pressure.

“His spirit is strong but his body is failing,” she said.

Hong Kong’s government said no abnormalities were found during a medical examination that followed Lai's complaint of heart problems. It added this month that the medical services provided to him were “adequate and comprehensive.”

Before sunrise, dozens of residents queued outside the court building to secure a courtroom seat.

Former Apple Daily employee Tammy Cheung arrived at 5 a.m., saying she wanted to know about Lai's condition after reports of his health.

She said she felt the process was being rushed since the verdict date was announced only last Friday, but added, “I’m relieved that this case can at least conclude soon.”

Originally scheduled to start in December 2022, Lai’s trial was postponed to December 2023 as authorities blocked a British lawyer from representing him, citing national security risks.

In 2022, Lai was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison over separate fraud charges involving lease violations at Apple Daily’s headquarters. He was also previously sentenced for his roles in unauthorized assemblies in other cases related to the 2019 protests.

Associated Press writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

People wait to enter the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts ahead of the verdict for Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai's national security trial, in Hong Kong, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People wait to enter the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts ahead of the verdict for Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai's national security trial, in Hong Kong, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People wait to enter the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts ahead of the verdict for Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai's national security trial, in Hong Kong, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

People wait to enter the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts ahead of the verdict for Hong Kong activist publisher Jimmy Lai's national security trial, in Hong Kong, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)