Sydney (AFP) - Two gunmen shot and killed 11 people and wounded many others Sunday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in what police labeled a terrorist attack on a gathering for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Emergency responders rushed at least 29 people to local hospitals from the beach, one of the biggest tourist draws in Australia’s largest city, said New South Wales police.

“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith – an act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Albanese said.

“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian,” he added, hailing ordinary citizens who tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen as “heroes”.

Police declared the shooting a “terrorist incident” and said they had found suspected “improvised explosive devices” in a vehicle near the beach that was linked to the deceased suspect.

One of the alleged shooters was killed, and the second was in a critical condition, they added.

- ‘Life ended in this way’ -

The shooting took place during an annual “Hanukkah by the Sea” event at Bondi Beach which police said was attended by over 1,000 people.

Among the fatalities was London-born rabbi Eli Schlanger, a 41-year-old father of five who served as assistant rabbi at the Chabad of Bondi Jewish cultural centre, his first cousin told Jewish News.

“How can a joyful rabbi who went to a beach to spread happiness and light, to make the world a better place, have his life ended in this way?” Brighton-based Rabbi Zalman Lewis told the British outlet.

World leaders and governments expressed revulsion and condemnation of the shooting, including in the United States and in Europe, where EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said “Europe stands with Australia and Jewish communities everywhere.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the tragedy as a “cruel attack on Jews” and urged the Australian authorities to step up the fight against antisemitism.

And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Australia’s government of having fuelled anti-Jewish sentiment in the period leading up to the shooting.

- ‘Blood everywhere’ -

As gunfire erupted, crowds fled in fear from the beach in eastern Sydney, which draws huge numbers of surfers, swimmers and tourists, especially at weekends.

“We heard the shots. It was shocking, it felt like 10 minutes of just bang, bang, bang. It seemed like a powerful weapon,” Camilo Diaz, a 25-year-old student from Chile, told AFP at the scene.

Emergency services first responded to reports of shots being fired at 6:47 pm (0747 GMT).

One witness who declined to be named said he saw six dead or wounded people lying on the beach.

The grassy hill overlooking Bondi Beach was strewn with discarded items from people fleeing, including an abandoned children’s stroller, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Paramedics tended to wounded people lying on the grass.

A weapon that appeared to be a pump-action shotgun was lying by a tree by the beach.

A British tourist, Timothy Brant-Coles, told AFP he saw “two shooters in black with semi-automatic rifles” and multiple people wounded.

- Antisemitism -

The foreign ministry in Iran, which has supported the Palestinian militant group Hamas for years, denounced Sunday’s “violent attack in Sydney.”

A string of antisemitic attacks has spread fear among Jewish communities in Australia following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

The Australian government has accused Iran of being behind two of the attacks, and expelled Tehran’s ambassador nearly four months ago.

Tehran directed the torching of a kosher cafe in Sydney’s Bondi suburb in October 2024, and a major arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024, the prime minister said in August, citing intelligence findings.

No injuries were reported in the two attacks.

The head of the Australian Jewish Association said the Bondi Beach shooting was a “tragedy but entirely foreseeable”.

“The Albanese government was warned so many times but failed to take adequate actions to protect the Jewish community,” Robert Gregory told AFP.

A leading Australian Muslim organisation condemned the shooting as “horrific”.

“Our hearts, thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and all those who witnessed or were affected by this deeply traumatic attack,” the Australian National Imams Council said.

In April 2024, a knife-wielding assailant killed six people at a shopping centre not far from Bondi Beach. The killer was found to have been suffering from schizophrenia but had stopped taking his medication, and no clear motive was identified.

In 2019, Australian citizen Brenton Tarrant killed 51 people when he attacked a mosque and Islamic centre in New Zealand’s Christchurch, livestreaming the assault that was linked to white nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment.