New Zealand is reeling after a terrorist livestreamed his attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.

At the time of writing, scores of people are confirmed dead, with some outlets stating that number is as high as 30. Sadly, that will likely rise in the hours and days that follow.

[UPDATE: The death toll now stands at 49.]

Police have confirmed that four people – three men and a woman – have been taken into custody.

The man who livestreamed his attack on Facebook has been named as Brenton Tarrant, a white, 28-year-old Australian-born man from New South Wales.

Tarrant streamed the attack for a full 17 minutes, where he fired more than 100 shots and killed multiple victims.

Thankfully, it appears that Twitter and Facebook have pulled the footage down (I saw a few seconds and it is awful beyond words). Parts of the video, including footage from inside the mosque, can still be found online, but we won’t share that.

If you must see some of the livestream footage, the Daily Mail have a 18-second video here, which shows Tarrant driving to the mosque and exiting his vehicle.

We will share a video of one of the mosque shooters being arrested, filmed by somebody who clearly had no idea what had just happened.

There is choice language below:

Some more info from the Daily Mail:

His guns, including the semi-automatic shotgun he used, were scrawled with the names of past mass killers and cities where the shootings occurred.

After retrieving one of at least six guns stored in his car, he walked up to the front door and began firing indiscriminately at worshippers inside.

The gunman stormed inside and fired quick bursts and anyone he saw…

Tarrant then walked outside and appeared to fire on at least two targets, then returned to his car and swapped his shotgun for a scoped rifle…

As he drove he expressed regret for not staying longer and ‘burning the mosque to the ground’. Two jerry cans of petrol were earlier seen the the back his car.

In addition to the shooting above, two more shootings occurred – one at a mosque, and another at a hospital.

Explosives have also been found at a fourth location, where a car was rigged with an IED, and further explosives were rigged to suspects’ cars:

Here are eyewitnesses describing what it was like to be inside the mosque at the time of the shooting:

Before his shooting spree, Tarrant uploaded 87-page manifesto to Twitter:

In the shooter’s manifesto he mentions being inspired by other shooters including Anders Breivik who killed 77 people in Oslo, Norway in 2011.

He said he ‘disliked’ Muslims and hated those who had converted to the religion, calling them ‘blood traitors’.

‘I have read the writings of Dylan Roof and many others, but only really took true inspiration from Knight Justiciar Breivik,’ he wrote…

He also claimed to be inspired by Candace Owens, an outspoken backer of United States president Donald Trump.

‘The person that has influenced me above all was Candace Owens, each time she spoke I was stunned by her insights.’

She seems to be taking the news that she inspired a terrorist killing spree quite well:

More below from the Telegraph:

Two shootings took place at two separate mosques in the city, one at Masjid Al Noor mosque on Deans Avenue and another at Masjid Mosque, Linwood Avenue.

Police said they also defused a number of improvised explosive devices found on vehicles after the shootings.

Three men and one woman are confirmed to be in police custody, however police have said they are not assuming the incident is contained.

At the time of writing, some schools and buildings were still in lockdown, with fears that further attacks could potentially occur, although authorities were clear that they didn’t want to be “alarmist”.

It’s just a really, really tragic day.

We’ll keep you posted on any major updates throughout the day.

[sources:dailymail&telegraph]