Please register to access this content.
To continue viewing the content you love, please sign in or create a new account
Dismiss
This content is for our paying subscribers only

World Australia-New Zealand

Christchurch mosque toll rises to 51 after man dies

46-year-old succumbs to injuries suffered in March 15 massacre



Worshippers prepare to enter the Al Noor mosque a week after the mass shooting (file picture).
Image Credit: AP

Wellington: The death toll from the Christchurch mosque attacks has risen to 51 after a 46-year-old man succumbed to injuries sustained in the March 15 shootings, New Zealand police said Friday.

“The man... had been in a critical condition in Christchurch Hospital since the terror attack,” police said, adding that he died late Thursday.

They said the man’s family had requested his name not be publicly released.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, a self-avowed white supremacist, is accused of the attacks on two mosques where worshippers were gathered for Friday prayers.

He is now in a maximum security prison undergoing psychiatric tests to determine if he is mentally fit to stand trial for 50 counts of murder and 39 of attempted murder.

Advertisement

Police said the latest fatality was a man shot at the central city Al Noor mosque, where more than 40 of the victims were killed before the gunman moved his rampage to another mosque at suburban Linwood.

After the attack, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the worst mass shooting in modern New Zealand history as one of the country’s darkest days.

Her government has since moved to tighten gun laws and is reviewing regulations dealing with hate speech, as well as spearheading an international push to force social media giants to do more to combat online extremism.

Advertisement