The Sydney Opera House is illuminated with candlelights in Sydney on December 21, 2025, as part of a national day of reflection honouring the victims of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack. (Photo by George Chan / AFP)
Sydney: Australia is reckoning with its deadliest mass shooting in decades after a father and son opened fire on crowds gathered for a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach.
Using newly released police allegations, witness testimony, and official statements, AFP pieced together a timeline of the December 14 attack that killed 15 people and wounded dozens.
Naveed Akram, 24, an Australian-born citizen, is accused of joining his 50-year-old father Sajid Akram in a shooting spree aimed at Jewish crowds gathered to celebrate Hanukkah.
Teenage IS supporter
Naveed Akram first caught the eye of Australia's intelligence agency in 2019, when he was a teenager allegedly rubbing shoulders with supporters of the Islamic State group in Sydney.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said two of Naveed's associates were later jailed, but he was not considered a serious threat and largely fell off the radar.
Training
Police allege video found on Naveed's mobile phone from late October shows the father and son training, "firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner" in the countryside, possibly New South Wales.
In the same month, police say mobile video shows them in black T-shirts in front of an Islamic State flag alongside four long-barrelled guns and rounds of ammunition.
Airbnb hideaway
Police say Naveed made an online booking on October 20 for one room inside a five-bedroom Airbnb house located in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Campsie, reserving it from December 2-21.
Philippines trip
Indian-born Sajid, who entered Australia on a visa in 1998, and his son Naveed booked a trip to the southern Philippines for November.
The purpose of their visit remains unclear.
GV Hotel staff in Davao City have told AFP the pair arrived November 1 and stayed for 28 days, leaving their small room only for short periods. Philippine detectives are poring over CCTV video to trace their movements and contacts.
Gone fishing
Naveed told his family before the shooting that he was taking his father on a fishing trip to Jervis Bay, about two hours south of Sydney.
"Anyone would wish to have a son like my son... he's a good boy," his mother, Verena, told local media.
Handout photo from a court exhibit released by the NSW Courts as part of the police facts sheet on December 22, 2025, shows Sajid and Naveed Akram at Bondi Beach in Sydney. (Photo by Handout / NSW Courts / AFP)
Two days before the shooting
CCTV images near Bondi Beach from 9.20pm on December 12 allegedly show the father and son parking for suspected "reconnaissance and planning of a terrorist attack".
According to police, the pair walk to the same footbridge from where they are accused of firing into crowds two days later.
Early hours of December 14
At 2:16 am local time on the day of the shooting, police allege CCTV captures them leaving the Airbnb home and placing weapons hidden under blankets in a 2001 Hyundai Elantra car registered to Naveed.
According to police, they packed two single-barrel shotguns, a Beretta rifle, three pipe bombs, one tennis ball bomb, and one large explosive device -- as well as two Islamic State group flags.
They then return to their lodgings.
Driving to Bondi Beach
At 5:09 pm the CCTV captures the suspects leaving the Airbnb and driving towards Bondi, police say. Naveed wears a black T-shirt and black pants. His father wears a black T-shirt and white pants.
Police say the car is tracked by cameras until it parks at Campbell Parade by a footbridge at the beach at 6:50 pm, and the pair allegedly place Islamic State flags on the inside of the front and rear windscreens.
They are accused of removing three firearms, the pipe bombs and the tennis ball bomb before moving towards the footbridge.
Police say the pipe bombs and tennis ball bomb were thrown towards the crowds -- but they cannot say which suspect threw them. The pipe bombs were allegedly viable but did not detonate.
A short time later, police allege, Sajid and Naveed Akram "armed with the three firearms, began shooting towards the crowd".
Panic
Thousands of beachgoers dropped everything and fled for their lives as the gunshots rang out.
"We are still asking people in the area to take shelter until we can determine what is happening," police said on social media shortly after 7pm.
A team of off-duty lifeguards sprinted across the sand to drag children to safety.
Others much closer to the gunmen sought whatever cover they could find.
Taking shelter
Churches, cafes and restaurants threw their doors open to shelter the panicked crowds.
Frenchman Alban Baton, 23, hid for several hours with other customers in a grocery store cool room.
At around that time, Sajid Akram left a footbridge that offered a commanding view of the area and advanced towards the festival.
As Sajid fired into the crowd, shopkeeper Ahmed Al Ahmed -- who had been getting coffee with friends -- approached him from behind and tackled him in a courageous act broadcast around the world.
Ahmed wrestled the gun away before pointing it at the assailant, who then backed away.
Ahmed was shot twice but it is not clear when or by whom.
Police arrive
Armed police arrived about 10 minutes into the shooting, as Sajid rejoined his son on the footbridge.
Sajid was killed in an exchange of fire with police. Naveed allegedly kept shooting until he was shot in the abdomen, hospitalised and charged with offences including terrorism and 15 murders.
Witnesses cheered as he fell to the ground.
Aftermath
Sirens blared as CPR was frantically administered to the bodies strewn across the beachfront.
One witness described it as a "war zone".
At around 9.36 pm, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns declared the mass shooting a terrorist attack.
Authorities confirmed the next morning that 15 people were killed.
