Opinion

Prayers for the people of Christchurch

Christchurch is not a large city, only slightly bigger than Belfast, while New Zealand has an even smaller population than Ireland and there have always been close links between the two countries on opposite sides of the world.

Many Irish people have made their home in Christchurch, either temporarily or permanently, and have loved the beautiful surroundings, the multicultural influences and the peaceful atmosphere.

Tragically, yesterday’s appalling events mean that the city’s name has suddenly become indelibly associated with hatred, violence and above all the loss of innocent life on a shocking scale.

In the early afternoon (NZ time), a gunman, who has been named as 28-year-old Brenton Tarrent, entered the Al Noor mosque and calmly walked around the building shooting men, women and children from close range.

He left the scene, reloaded one of his automatic rifles with ammunition stored in the boot of his car and then returned to the place of worship to inflict further carnage on the defenceless Muslim congregation.

In a display of unbelievable depravity, Tarrent, when he could not find any more survivors, repeatedly fired into the bodies of the dead and dying as they lay on the ground.

Another mosque, a ten-minute drive away at Linwood, was targeted in an equally brutal way shortly afterwards, although as of last night police had not confirmed the identity of the attacker there.

At least 49 people died in the course of the two outrages, with a further 40 wounded during what was the worst mass shooting in the history of New Zealand.

It quickly emerged, in a final sickening twist, that Tarrent had used a head-mounted camera to live-stream his rampage on Facebook, where it was widely viewed before the social media company removed the footage.

Tarrent, who was in custody last night, was clearly a highly dangerous individual who had hours earlier espoused extreme racist and anti-immigrant views and set out his murderous plans in a document posted online.

There can only be major concern that he was not known in advance to the security services in either New Zealand or his native Australia.

It was equally disturbing that Tarrent was able to acquire a frightening range of weaponry without any undue difficulty by taking advantage of New Zealand’s liberal gun laws, and all these matters will have to be urgently reviewed by the authorities.

For now, the priority must be offering full sympathy and practical support to the devastated Muslim community associated with the Al Noor and Linwood mosques.

Books of condolence have been opened in Belfast and many other cities, and the thoughts and prayers of the rest of the world will be the people of Christchurch.