Bondi live updates: Alleged gunmen travelled to Philippines month before shooting, police say
Bondi is very busy – and very quietpublished at 07:25 GMT
Helen Sullivan
Senior Journalist, reporting from Bondi Beach
I live a five-minute walk from where the attacks happened. The park where it took place is where my mother’s group met for the first time, the playground one my daughter often visits.
It is likely we would have been at our local Bondi Beach that day, but we were away on holiday. We got back the next day.
I walked down to the Pavilion at 20:30 local time, and noticed a few candles burning in windows – a way people had been encouraged to show their support for Jewish Australians.
It was a cold night, windy and a little drizzly. On weeknight like this, it is often fairly empty down there. But now it was full of people coming to lay flowers, meet, or stand for a while.
What struck me was that while it was so full, it was very quiet. Occasionally there was the sound of crying, or sniffing. Soft talking, some gentle laughter. Some people responded with silence, others by trying to keep spirits up.
At one point I noticed people in the crowd looking at men in high-vis jackets bearing the name Zaka, the Israeli search and recovery team. The men were slipping Hanukkah geld – gold chocolate coins that are among the many traditions of the holiday – into some peoples’ hands.
Image source, BBC/Helen SullivanImage caption,
A candle burns in the window of a home in Bondi Beach in support of Jewish Australians after the attack.
