Australian fashion designer Pip Edwards has spoken out after being caught up in yesterday’s deadly terrorist attack at Bondi Beach.
The P.E Nation co-founder was spending time at the beach with artist friend Jess Engles when the gunmen opened fire nearby.
“We immediately ducked between two parked vans as the shots continued to fire incessantly, and quite literally as close as two metres away,” Edwards wrote on Instagram.
“We had to immediately take refuge under a van and watched the gunman’s feet with his gun pace in front of the van right at our heads, using our van as his post. His feet were in front of the van and another gunman’s feet were behind, circling the van. There was a civilian yelling out to them from a van next to us, which distracted them and pulled them away from our van.
“They shot at everything and everyone; surrounding cars were being hit, including our van. I was convulsing with fear, trapped, thinking this was it for us, just monitoring the movement of their feet.”
She recounted hiding beneath a van for about 15 minutes, describing moments of “complete panic and shock”, barely breathing to avoid being heard. When the gunfire finally stopped, Edwards said their friend Chris pushed through the barriers to find them and pull them to safety.
“[We] couldn’t breathe because we didn’t want to be heard, and when the deafening gunshots finally stopped, our friend Chris broke through all the barriers to come find us, save us, and extract us from under the van,” she said, adding that she was struggling to “comprehend” the “carnage that I heard and saw firsthand”.
“This crazy, wild, and unnecessarily brutal incident is incomprehensible — unfolding among innocent people enjoying a glorious Bondi summer’s day,” she wrote.
“I am properly shook to the core and grieving for all who died, all who were injured and those who survived and are now trying to make sense of what is the most inhumane, profoundly senseless act ever!”
Edwards thanked Engles for staying “heroic and calm” as the incident unfolded, and said it was the “only statement” she planned to provide on the attack.
The horrific scene yesterday saw two gunmen open fire on Bondi, as members of Sydney’s Jewish community gathered to celebrate Chanukah by the Sea on the first day of Hanukkah. A total of 16 people were killed, including a 10-year-old girl, while dozens more remain in hospital.
“This destroyed whole worlds and things will always be different for us,” Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said of the terror attack. “It has fundamentally changed this country.”
One gunman was killed by police during the attack, while another alleged gunman remains in hospital under police guard.
The incident, which has officially been declared a terrorist attack, is Australia’s worst mass shooting in 29 years.
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