One of the two gunmen behind Australia’s Bondi Beach mass shooting in Sydney woke from a coma on Tuesday night, days after a father-and-son duo opened fire on a Jewish festival, killing 15 people.Naveed Akram, 24, regained consciousness and remains in hospital under armed police guard, local media reported. Akram was shot by police during a shootout at the scene on Sunday evening and had been in a coma since the attack.The attack unfolded at a crowded Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, where around 1,000 people had gathered. Authorities said Akram and his father, Sajid Akram, 50, used long-barrelled firearms to deliberately target Jewish attendees.Sajid was shot dead by police at the scene. His son survived and is now a central focus of the investigation as authorities seek to establish the full extent of “terror” planning and possible overseas links.Among the 15 victims were a 10-year-old girl, two Holocaust survivors and a married couple who were shot dead while attempting to stop the attackers. Forty-two people were hospitalised, including two police officers injured in the exchange of gunfire. Australia began burying the dead on Wednesday. The first funeral was held for Eli Schlanger, a father of five known as the “Bondi rabbi,” at the Chabad of Bondi Synagogue. A second service was scheduled later in the day for 39-year-old rabbi Yaakov Levitan.Investigators say the attack was motivated by extremist ideology. Two homemade Islamic State flags were recovered from a car registered to Naveed Akram and parked near the beach. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it “would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” describing the shooting as antisemitic and aimed at terrorising the Jewish community.Authorities are also examining a recent trip by the two men to the southern Philippines, where they may have met Islamist extremists. Naveed Akram had previously come to the attention of Australia’s intelligence agency in 2019 but was not assessed as an imminent threat.New South Wales Premier Chris Minns formally declared the incident an act of terrorism on Sunday evening, triggering a joint federal–state counter-terrorism operation.In response, Albanese convened a meeting of state and territory leaders, agreeing to explore tougher gun laws, including stricter background checks, barring non-nationals from gun licences and further limits on legal firearms.With Naveed Akram now conscious, investigators are expected to seek answers from the surviving gunman as Australia mourns the victims of an attack that has shaken the nation.
