Post by Admin on Mar 15, 2019 13:01:13 GMT
The Christchurch mosque attacks were live-streamed on the internet by a man posting online under the name Brenton Tarrant.
Distressing footage shows him firing indiscriminately at men, women and children at close range inside the Al Noor mosque.
The individual previously posted a rambling and expletive-filled document, espousing violent right-wing ideology.
Police said three people were in custody and that a man in his late 20s had been charged with murder.
On Friday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that a man in custody in New Zealand was an Australian-born citizen.
Mr Morrison called him an "extremist right-wing violent terrorist", adding that Australian authorities would assist New Zealand's investigation.
The man in the footage equipped himself with what appears to be a head-mounted camera to live-stream the attack in central Christchurch.
The streams were broadcast online, including briefly on Facebook, showing the violence in graphic detail.
A song which played in the suspect's car is known as a marching anthem for Serbian nationalist paramilitary units known as Chetniks during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Australian media reported that Brenton Tarrant was originally from Grafton, a town 600km (370 miles) north of Sydney, and had previously worked at a fitness facility.
"He never showed any extremist views or any crazy behaviour," his former boss, Tracey Gray, told Seven News.
In the 16,500-word document, the man says he began planning an attack after visiting Europe in 2017 and being angered by events there.
The document is called "The Great Replacement" - it's not something just dreamt up, but the title of a loose global movement that has been rapidly growing online.
The central tenet of the conspiracy is that "European peoples" are dying out and being "replaced" by immigrants with a different, inferior and dangerous culture. This is basically a code for hatred or fear of Muslims.
Part of the theory is that states and corporations are encouraging "white genocide" by pushing up immigration rates purely to keep global capitalism going. Occasionally, the theory dips into anti-Semitism and neo-Nazi beliefs by blaming Jews for the world economic system.
The phrase The Great Replacement first emerged in France.
Its most public advocates include followers of Generation Identity, a European anti-Islam movement.