A father and son were likely driven by “Islamic State ideology” when they opened fire on a Jewish festival at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday.
Sajid Akram and his son Naveed killed 15 people in a mass shooting that targeted a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at the famous beach on Sunday evening.
Authorities said the attack was designed to sow panic among the nation’s Jews, but have so far given little detail on the gunmen’s deeper motivations.
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Albanese gave one of the first hints on Tuesday that the pair had been radicalised by an “ideology of hate”.
“It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” Albanese told national broadcaster ABC.
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“With the rise of Isis more than a decade ago now, the world has been grappling with extremism and this hateful ideology,” he said in a separate interview.