In times of tragedy, like the Christchurch terror attack that has so far claimed 50 lives, there are always those who stand up in the face of great danger.

The policemen who ended up making the arrest of Brenton Tarrant have been widely lauded, and now Abdul Aziz has emerged as another hero.

Aziz confronted the gunman at the second mosque he attacked, and may have saved many lives with his bravery, which ultimately led to Tarrant fleeing the scene.

The Guardian reports:

Aziz, who was born in Afghanistan but is an Australian citizen and lived in Sydney for 27 years, was inside the Linwood mosque with four of his children for Friday prayers when someone shouted that a gunman had opened fire.

“He had on army clothes,” Aziz told Reuters on Sunday. “I wasn’t sure if he was the good guy or the bad guy. When he swore at me, I knew that he’s not the good guy.”

When he realised the mosque was being attacked, the 48-year-old ran towards the gunman, picking up a credit card machine as a makeshift weapon. After the gunman had run back to his car to get another gun, Aziz said he threw the credit card machine, ducking between the cars to avoid gunfire.

When the gunman returned, he saw Aziz holding one of the weapons he had dropped, waiting to confront him. Ultimately, Tarrant climbed back into his vehicle and fled, where he was arrested by two police officers.

In Aziz’s own words:

Aziz is being rather modest, and the mosque’s acting imam, Latef Alabi, says the death toll would have been far higher if Aziz had not intervened.

He has lauded him as a hero:

Alabi said he stopped prayer when he looked out of the window and spotted a man in black military-style gear and a helmet holding a large gun, mistaking him for a police officer. Then he saw two bodies and “realised this is something else”.

Alabi told his congregation of about 80 to get down. “Then this brother [Aziz] came over. He went after him, and he managed to overpower him, and that’s how we were saved,” Alabi told Associated Press. “Otherwise, if he managed to come into the mosque, then we would all probably be gone.”

Aziz is originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, but fled the war-torn country several years ago. He now owns a furniture shop in Christchurch.

Whilst he lived to tell his tale, others were not so lucky:

More heroes have come to light as investigators pieced together the incident.

Naeem Rashid, 50, was seen lunging at the gunman in the livestream video from the initial attack on Al Noor mosque. Rashid, from Abbottabad, Pakistan, and a New Zealand resident for nine years, was in the mosque with his 21-year-old son. Both were killed.

Yesterday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that Rashid would be given a posthumous national award for bravery.

[source:guardian]