Everything we know about Bondi Beach ‘attacker’ Naveed Akram

The surviving suspected Bondi Beach shooter has been named by local media after 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah event on Sunday.

Two terrorist gunmen opened fire at a crowd of more than 1,000 people celebrating the Jewish festival in Archer Park shortly before 7pm.

A ten-year-old girl and a British-born rabbi are among the dead, while dozens of people are in hospital after Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid Akram, 50, allegedly started shooting into the crowd.

A local fruit seller, Ahmed al Ahmed, managed to wrestle the weapon off him before the gunman was shot dead by police.

Naveed Akram was critically injured and apprehended by the police, and the 24-year-old remains in hospital.

Here is what we know about the surviving prime suspect’s background.

Who is Naveed Akram?

Akram is from Bonnyrigg in south west Sydney. Detectives have searched properties in the neighbourhood and the Campsie area, another New South Wales suburb, in the aftermath of the attack.

Reports of a black Isis flag draped over the attacker’s car ‘would form part of the investigation,’ the New South Wales state police commissioner Mal Lanyon has said.

Former classmates who knew Akram at Cabramatta High School said they were ‘absolutely shocked’ when they saw the younger man’s picture in the news following the mass shooting.

Akram is thought to have started at the school in west Sydney in Year 7 in 2014 before leaving to work as a bricklayer around Year 10 or 11, according to Daily Mail.

Steven Luong, a former classmate who played basketball with Akram after school, told the outlet: ‘I could have never imagined in 100 years that this could be his doing.

‘He was a very nice person. He never did anything unusual.

‘He never even interrupted in class.’

Another classmate, who asked not to be named, said she is ‘very shocked,’ and described him as ‘one of the smart kids’.

She continued: ‘He was just normal. Nice. Quiet.

‘We were never friends, but spoke in passing. Same classes, same teachers, sat near each other. So crazy.’

The older gunman was part of a gun club and he had a licence for six weapons, which were found to have been used in the attack.

There was no third person involved in the attack, the police commissioner confirmed, after reports that at least one more person was on the run.

What has Akram’s family said about the alleged shooter?

Verena Akram, Naveed’s mum, has spoken from her home in Bonnyrigg surrounded by police.

Ms Akram said her son told the family he had gone to Jervis Bay with his dad to fish and swim.

She told the Sydney Morning Herald: ‘He rings me up [on Sunday] and said, “Mum, I just went for a swim. I went scuba diving. We’re going… to eat now.”

‘And then this morning, “we’re going to stay home now because it’s very hot.”‘

Ms Akram was reportedly not able to identify her son from a photo from the scene.

She continued: ‘He doesn’t have a firearm. He doesn’t even go out. He doesn’t mix around with friends. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t go to bad places.

‘He goes to work, he comes home, he goes to exercise, and that’s it.’

She described her son as not particularly social at school and that he was working as a bricklayer until around two months ago when the firm became insolvent.

Akram is expected to live to face criminal charges, the police commissioner confirmed.

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