At least 49 people are believed to have died in two terror attacks on mosques in Christchurch.
New Zealand internet service providers have reportedly started blocking sites that do not remove the video, including 8chan, 4chan and LiveLeak. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed in. Following a mass shooting at a Christchurch mosque on Friday 15 March, three New Zealand ISPs have blocked access to the websites 8chan, 4chan and LiveLeak. 8chan is a messaging board where the shooter was suspected to have developed and published his manifesto prior to the attack.
Four people are in custody after New Zealand Police said there had been 'multiple fatalities' following what they described as a 'tragic series of events' in the Canterbury region on Friday.
The New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern later described the incident as an event which can 'only be described as a terrorist attack'.
Witness Len Peneha said he saw a man dressed in black enter the mosque and then heard dozens of shots, followed by people running from the mosque in terror.
Mr Peneha, who lives next door to the mosque, said the gunman ran out of the mosque, dropped what appeared to be a semi-automatic weapon in his drive, and fled.
Mr Peneha said he then went into the mosque to try to help.
'I saw dead people everywhere. There were three in the hallway, at the door leading into the mosque, and people inside the mosque,' he said.
'I don't understand how anyone could do this to these people, to anyone. It's ridiculous.'
He said he helped about five people recover in his home. He said one was slightly injured.
'I've lived next door to this mosque for about five years and the people are great, they're very friendly,' he said. 'I just don't understand it.'
New Zealand's PM Jacinda Arden said: “We New Zealanders were not chosen for this act of violence because we condone this racism, or because we are an enclave of extremism, we were chosen for the very fact that we are none of these things.
“I want to send a message to those directly affected. For many this may have not been the place they were born. For many New Zealand was their choice, a place they actively came to and committed themselves to.
'It was a place where many came to for their safety. A place where it was safe to practice their culture and religion.
“We represent diversity and compassion, a home for those who share our values, a refuge for those who need it. And those values will not and can not be shaken by this attack. We are a proud nation of more than 200 ethnicities and 160 languages.”
Issuing the strongest possible condemnation of the ideology of the people who did this', she said: “You may have chosen us but we utterly reject and condemn you.”
Ms Ardern was asked about the attackers not being on intelligence agency watch-lists and said it was an indication they 'had not acted in a way that warranted it'.
She was asked if she had any information from Australia about whether they had been on watch-lists and said: 'My understanding at this stage is that they weren't on watch-lists.'
Asked about the ages of victims, she said: 'I will have been amongst other members of the public who will have seen the footage as the injured were being brought to Christchurch A&E and you certainly can see from that footage there is a real range of ages there.
'I imagine that these would have represented particular brothers, fathers, sons.'
Mark Nichols told the New Zealand Herald he heard about five gunshots and that a Friday prayer-goer returned fire with a rifle or shotgun.
Mr Nichols said he saw two injured people being carried out on stretchers past his automotive shop and that both people appeared to be alive.
The man who claimed responsibility for the shooting said he was 28-year-old white Australian who came to New Zealand only to plan and train for the attack.
He said he was not a member of any organisation, but had donated to and interacted with many nationalist groups, though he acted alone and no group ordered the attack.
He said the mosques in Christchurch and Linwood would be the targets, as would a third mosque in the town of Ashburton if he could make it there.
He said he chose New Zealand because of its location, to show that even the most remote parts of the world were not free of 'mass immigration'.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said three men and one woman were in custody.
He did not confirm the number of fatalities, but said it was 'significant'.
'They occurred in two locations, two mosques in Christchurch', he said.
'Our police have those locations locked down. We have four people in custody.
'We cannot assume there are not others at large.'
Police said they had defused a number of improvised explosive devices found on vehicles after the shootings.
Mr Bush did not confirm if it was a terrorist attack initially, but said: 'It does not get more serious than this.'
Officers responded to reports of shots fired in central Christchurch at about 1.40pm local time (12.40am GMT), and urged people in the area to stay indoors.
All schools in the city were put into lockdown as the situation unfolded.
Mosques in Deans Avenue and Linwood Avenue were targeted in the attack, but police urged all mosques across New Zealand to shut their doors in the wake of the incident.
The country's prime minister Jacinda Ardern called it 'one of New Zealand's darkest days'.
She told a news conference: 'What has happened here is an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence.'
Witness Mohan Ibrahim said he was one of 200 people in the Masjid Al Noor mosque on Deans Avenue when he heard shots fired.
He told the New Zealand Herald: 'At first we thought it was an electric shock but then all these people started running.'
'I still have friends inside,' he added.
'I have been calling my friends but there are many I haven't heard from. I am scared for my friends' lives.'
Members of the Bangladesh cricket team, currently on tour in New Zealand, said on social media that they had nearly been caught up in the tragedy.
Tamim Iqbal tweeted: 'Entire team got saved from active shooters!!! Frightening experience and please keep us in your prayers', while Mushfiqur Rahim said: 'Alhamdulillah Allah save us today while shooting in Christchurch in the mosque...we r extremely lucky...never want to see this things happen again....pray for us'.
New Zealand Police urged people not to share 'extremely disturbing footage' relating to the incident that was circulating online.
'It's very disturbing, it shouldn't be in the public domain,' Mr Bush said.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the British High Commission in Wellington was in contact with the New Zealand authorities about the incident.
'British nationals in the area are advised to remain vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities,' he said.
'The British High Commission in Wellington is in contact with the New Zealand authorities and urgently seeking further information.'
Officers responded to reports of shots fired in central Christchurch at about 1.40pm local time (12.40am GMT), and urged people in the area to stay indoors.
All schools in the city were put into lockdown as the situation unfolded.
Mosques in Deans Avenue and Linwood Avenue were targeted in the attack, but police urged all mosques across New Zealand to shut their doors in the wake of the incident.
The country's prime minister Jacinda Ardern called it 'one of New Zealand's darkest days'.
She told a news conference: 'What has happened here is an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence.'
Witness Mohan Ibrahim said he was one of 200 people in the Masjid Al Noor mosque on Deans Avenue when he heard shots fired.
He told the New Zealand Herald: 'At first we thought it was an electric shock but then all these people started running.'
'I still have friends inside,' he added.
'I have been calling my friends but there are many I haven't heard from. I am scared for my friends' lives.'
A site that explicitly stated it would not host the horrific Christchurch terror video has been blocked by Australian telcos in an “extraordinary” effort to censor dozens of websites.
Telstra, Vodafone and Optus have all confirmed they are actively blocking Australian customers on their networks from accessing websites that hosted the Christchurch terror video.
None of the three telcos would say which sites had been blocked. The blocks are temporary and will be lifted when the footage is removed. The decision was made independently by telcos following industry-wide discussions, without any direction from law enforcement or the courts.
Facebook and Twitter were not targeted, despite hosting the video.
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Guardian Australia understands this is because they are taking active steps of their own to remove the material from their pages. Many mainstream media outlets have also shown the video on their site, including News.com.au, which remains accessible.
But LiveLeak, a video sharing site known for often showing disturbing content, has been blocked by Telstra, Vodafone and Optus. The video initially appeared on LiveLeak, but was soon scrubbed and is no longer available in searches.
LiveLeak told its users in a statement on Monday that it was refusing to carry the video because it did not want to “indulge” the perpetrator by carrying his propaganda and that it had received “no small number of complaints” regarding the fact that it would not carry the video of the shooting in New Zealand, streamed live on Facebook.
“The Christchurch shooter wasn’t just some random ‘nutcase’. He planned not just the murders but also the chaos he would sow with his manifesto which reads like the fevered dream of a fully fledged ‘shitposter’.”
“Currently, judging by media coverage and reactions online, he’s getting almost exactly what he wanted. We don’t intend to indulge him further.”
Optus, Telstra and Vodafone were approached for comment on their decision to block LiveLeak. Optus referred questions about LiveLeak to the Communications Alliance, whose chief executive, John Stanton, spoke more generally about the blocks.
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“Due to the extraordinary circumstances, several large ISPs in Australia have taken the decision to voluntarily implement temporary blocks of websites that continue to host footage of the Christchurch terrorist attack video,” Stanton said.
“These ISPs have sought to balance community expectations to remove access to the video with the need to minimise any inconvenience that may arise from legitimate content being blocked as an unavoidable, temporary consequence.”
Vodafone said in a statement it had blocked “dozens of sites” still hosting the footage “We understand users trying to access these sites for legitimate purposes may be inconvenienced but we believe it’s the right thing to do in these extreme circumstances to help stop the further distribution of this video,” it said in a statement.
“In Australia, blocking requests are generally made via the courts or law enforcement agencies however, this is an extreme case which we think required an extraordinary response.”
“There were industry discussions in relation to this issue and we did make enquiries with various agencies but this is a decision Vodafone Australia made independently.”
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Such blocks are generally considered ineffective and easily bypassed. Users on the online forum Reddit are already rubbishing the blocks and the ease at which they can be evaded.
Also on Tuesday, Facebook revealed that the livestream of the attack was viewed 200 times during the live broadcast, and no one reported the content.
“Including the views during the live broadcast, the video was viewed about 4,000 times in total before being removed from Facebook,” the Facebook vice-president Chris Sonderby said.
“The first user report on the original video came in 29 minutes after the video started, and 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended.”