CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand _ Moments after dozens of people were shot dead at the Al Noor Mosque in New Zealand's third-largest city, prayers had begun at another mosque just three miles to the east.
Inside the Linwood Mosque, 30-year-old Faisal Sayed heard a banging sound. He and another worshiper broke prayer and rushed to look out a window.
Two congregants who had been running late to the service had been shot outside, he said. A gunman dressed in military-style clothing was headed inside, firing at worshipers.
One person was shot in the head, as was a woman who had given up her spot to another congregant just before services began. A third person was shot in the shoulder. A total of seven would die at the Linwood Mosque.
In the chaos, one of the congregants confronted the attacker and grabbed his weapon, Sayed said.
"He held the rifle," Sayed said of the man who fought back, causing the gunman to drop the weapon and flee. "If this guy was not there, I don't think I would be talking to you right now." He did not identify the man.
New Zealand remained in a state of shock Saturday as the reality set in of the worst mass killing in its history. A sense of overwhelming sadness enveloped Christchurch, a city of 388,000, as did over a manifesto in which a racist extremist and outsider described plans to engineer a horrific attack, targeting a place where immigrants said they felt welcome.
"End of innocence," said the lead headline of Christchurch's Press newspaper Saturday, above a photo of a shooting survivor from the Linwood Mosque, his clothes stained with blood.
"I don't know why you would attack Christchurch," said Anthony Chui, 25, who grew up in the city and now lives in Wellington, the capital. "You think New Zealand is one of the safest countries in the world," said his partner, Jessica Roche, 28, a native of France.
Forty-nine people were killed in the attacks at the two Christchurch mosques, allegedly committed by an Australian, Brenton Tarrant. Forty-eight other people were treated at Christchurch Hospital; 11 remained in the intensive care unit Saturday afternoon.
The wounded ranged in age from a 2-year-old boy to the elderly. A 4-year-old girl in critical condition was transferred to a hospital in Auckland, the nation's largest city, Greg Robertson, Canterbury District Health Board's chief of surgery, said at a news conference.
Victims were shot in the chest, abdomen, pelvis and head, Robertson said.
A manifesto written under Tarrant's name said he was a 28-year-old white supremacist out to avenge attacks in Europe perpetrated by Muslims, and had come to New Zealand to plan and train for the attack.
The New Zealand Herald reported that Tarrant smirked at journalists as he was photographed in court, where he was charged with a single count of murder Saturday. More charge are expected. The judge ordered media organizations to pixelate photographs of the suspect to preserve his right to a fair trial.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tarrant had traveled around the world, including sporadic stays in New Zealand. He had been based in Dunedin, a city 200 miles southwest of Christchurch.
Tarrant had no criminal history in New Zealand or Australia, nor had he been on any watchlists in the two countries, Ardern said. Two other suspects were in custody. It was not immediately clear what role they may have played in the attacks.
A fourth person was detained by police and later released. Sayed said that person was the man who grabbed the gunman's weapon at the Linwood Mosque.
The prime minister said five guns were used by the gunman, including two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns. Ardern also said an unspecified lever-action firearm was found.
Tarrant received a Category A gun license in 2017 that let him legally acquire the guns he held, Ardern said. "That will give you an indication of why we need to change our gun laws," she said. She didn't provide specifics on what she would propose.
Police responded immediately to calls reporting the attack and the suspect was in custody 36 minutes later, Ardern said. Two other firearms were discovered in his car, she said. "It absolutely was his intention to continue with his attack."
Attempts were being made to bury the dead as soon as possible, in accordance with Muslim tradition, but Abdirisak Sheikh, 28, who survived the shooting at Linwood Mosque and had close friends at Al Noor Mosque, said Saturday afternoon that the bodies of some of the dead still lay where they were shot.
Having been warned by authorities against meeting at mosques until further notice, Muslims have had to gather at homes and at the hospital, sharing tears and offering hugs and embraces.
Sue Naidoo, 46, came with her family to pay their respects at a makeshift memorial close to Al Noor Mosque, where a police cordon kept the public away as hearses lined up to enter.
By midday Saturday, the memorial of bouquets, stocked with pink hydrangeas and white lilies, had grown, topped with a sign that said, "This is not NZ."
Before the attacks, Naidoo said, there was no need for immigrants to be afraid. She and her family, who are Hindu, moved here from South Africa a year ago.
"We were looking for a safer place to bring up our children, and that's what we were expecting, and that's what we lived _ for a year," Naidoo said, her eyes filling with tears. "And suddenly out of the blue, it was this. And it was too close to home, and too much to handle."
Yong Kuk Kim, a 62-year-old cabdriver who moved to New Zealand from South Korea decades ago, said the attack made him afraid. But he emphasized that the suspect is an outsider.
Kim said New Zealand is welcoming toward immigrants and that he moved here so his children could get a good education. "No racism here," Kim said. "This is a safe place."
Sayed, the worshiper at Linwood Mosque who survived the attack, said New Zealand Muslims like him often thought that they were safer here than in countries like the United States.
"People have Islamophobia in the U.K. and the U.S., and other places," said Sayed, a native of India who moved to Christchurch a decade ago and is a hotel general manager.
Here, "you have a prime minister who occasions to celebrate with Muslims, to express that we are all together." He cited her visit Saturday to Christchurch _ talking to community leaders at a refugee center, meeting with family and friends of shooting victims who had gathered at a college, and stopping by the hospital.
"This shows and passes the message to all of the country and the world that we are not a country that is built on race, creed, religion. We are a country based on aroha _ that's the values we have: compassion, love and humanity," Sayed said, using a word in the Maori language, spoken by the indigenous people of New Zealand.
Some were furious at Facebook and YouTube for not stopping the spread of a video that broadcast the massacre via Facebook Live from a camera mounted on the helmet the gunman wore.
Facebook removed the video after being alerted by New Zealand police. A company spokesman, Benjamin McConaghy, said he was unable to immediately say how long it took to take down the video. The suspect's Facebook and Instagram accounts were also closed.
Facebook is working to prevent related videos and praise for the shooter or crime from appearing on its sites, Mia Garlick, a director of policy for Facebook in New Zealand and Australia, said in a statement.
Facebook and other social media companies have struggled to manage inappropriate and violent videos on their sites. The companies have hired moderators and improved their technology to flag such videos, but some slip through the cracks.
YouTube said it was "working vigilantly to remove any violent footage."
Meanwhile, public events across New Zealand were canceled and some restaurants remained closed for a second night Saturday in Christchurch. A Bangladesh cricket team that had been set to play Saturday in Christchurch returned home instead.
Christchurch is the dominant urban center on the nation's south island, which is known mostly for agriculture, coal mining and tourism. Christchurch was founded in the 1840s as a trading center for farmers.
The city is becoming increasingly diverse, according to government statistics, with the white population projected to decline in the next two decades from 85 percent to 76 percent, while the proportions of Asians, Maori and Pacific ethnic groups are expected to climb. About 48 percent of the city is Christian; 45 percent have no religion. Muslims make up about 0.8 percent of the population, behind Buddhists (1.3 percent) and Hindus (1 percent).
