Ardern calls for guns law changes after mass shooting

Tighter gun control laws are likely to follow the mass shooting of 100 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch in the nation's first international terrorist attack.

A gunman killed 49 with more than 40 other victims in hospital, some of whom are critical or in intensive care. They include a child who has been flown to Starship Hospital in Auckland.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who has described the attacks as one of New Zealand's "darkest days,” emphasised the need for gun law changes in a news conference today.

She also provided more details of the main suspect, who has appeared in the Churchurch court and named as Brenton Tarrant, 28.

Two others remain in custody in connection with the attacks, while a fourth armed person intending to help police has been released.  

Ms Ardern says priority is being put on inquiries into Tarrant's recent movements and how, as a registered firearms carrier, he managed to amass semi-automatic military-style weapons before going public on social media with his plan to attack the mosques.

He had escaped detection by police and counter-terrorist intelligence agencies in both Australia, where he was born, and in New Zealand, where he had been living in Dunedin.

Ms Ardern said the perpetrators had five weapons, including two semi-automatic guns and two shotguns.

Tarrant, who outlined his intentions and motivations in an online document of 74 pages, had “travelled around the world with sporadic periods of time spent in New Zealand,” she added.

Extremist solution
In the document, he espouses white nationalist and anti-Muslim sympathies as well as extremist solutions in response to Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe and North America.

His online presence included live-streaming his first attack, at the Al Noor mosque near Hagley Park, to Facebook. He then drove to a second mosque in Linwood Ave.

Local and international media are providing saturation coverage on New Zealand’s biggest mass shooting, while world’s leaders have joined in condemning it.

Nationals from Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia are among the victims, Ms Ardern says.

Former prime minister Helen Clark, speaking to the BBC from Azerbaijan, called it the country’s “Breivik moment,” a reference to an anti-immigrant Norwegian extremist’s shooting of 70 young people at a summer camp on the island of Uteya.