Sixteen people are dead and dozens are in hospital after a terrorist attack at Bondi beach in Sydney on Sunday evening.
Here’s how you can help.
Donating blood
On Sunday evening, Lifeblood issued several large life-threatening orders for O negative blood to hospitals in Sydney in the wake of the terror attack. Forty-two people were transported to nine hospitals across the city, including four children and two police officers.
The premier, Chris Minns, reiterated that call on Monday morning.
“We saw extraordinary scenes from New South Wales public hospitals last night, emergency departments at the drop of a hat were in the process of saving scores of lives.
“They did an incredible job but they need your help. They need blood and if you’re thinking about doing an act of public service in the coming 24 hours, I urge you to contact the Red Cross and do that piece of public-mindedness.”
Due to the additional blood needs in Sydney, Lifeblood was transferring blood donations from multiple states to support the need in NSW. There are 10 Lifeblood donor centres in Sydney, including at the town hall, on York Street and at Parramatta.
Its website was receiving high volumes on Monday morning, leading to a temporary outage, while Lifeblood’s call centre was also experiencing delays. The organisation encouraged would-be donors to call 13 14 95 to book an appointment or to check back on the website later.
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A spokesperson for Lifeblood said the need for more blood donors was ongoing, particularly for O negative donors.
“Fewer than 7% of the population are O negative, making it a challenge,” they said.
“O negative and O positive blood are always in high demand because they are used in emergency situations when a patient’s blood type is unknown. In the event of a serious trauma event or emergency, up to 100 blood donations may be needed to save just one life.
“Lifeblood teams work 24/7 to ensure life-saving blood products are available when and where they are needed by patients, including those impacted by the mass shooting at Bondi Beach.”
Support for Australia’s Jewish community
The local member for Wentworth, Allegra Spender, similarly shared the urgent blood donation callout. She has established a support page on her website that notes that a vigil will take place in the coming days.
“I have one request for every member of our community, every Australian,” she said on Sunday evening. “Please reach out to every member of the Jewish community that you know … and just say, ‘we’ve got your back’.
“One thing we can do as a country is support out Jewish community right now.”
The CEO of Jewish House, Rabbi Mendel Kastel, told the ABC it was important for the community to “stand together” and make sure the Jewish community felt safe.
“Putting arms around us is absolutely appreciated and necessary,” he said.
“I think those arms need to get wider and wider and more and more people step up … and say we are with the Jewish community.
“The messages of Hanukah, of bringing light, of bringing piece, of bringing togetherness, that needs to be done together. We can’t do it on our own.”
The NSW government has released an online condolence book and advised anyone who wished to lay flowers to head to a memorial site at the rear of Bondi Pavilion.
Donate
The crowdfunding platform GoFundMe has established a hub featuring fundraisers to help the victims of the attack and their families.
The site says the fundraisers have been vetted and verified by its crisis response team to ensure they will be transferred safely to the intended beneficiaries. It says unverified fundraisers are being removed from the platform.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
• In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and Griefline on 1300 845 745. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
