On Tuesday, Australian authorities stated that the father and son who opened fire on families during a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach had packed their vehicle with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and homemade ISIS flags—heightening concerns that the massacre was part of a more extensive attack plot than initially suspected.
At a press conference, investigators labeled the 24-year-old and 50-year-old father-and-son gunmen “cowards” who targeted Jewish Australians “in broad daylight.” Fifteen people were killed and more than two dozen wounded in the shootings, which police are now officially describing as an .
New South Wales Police confirmed that the younger attacker’s vehicle contained IEDs and two homemade ISIS flags—evidence authorities say directly links to extremist ideology and an apparent plan to carry out a larger, coordinated assault. Forensic teams are still conducting ballistic and chemical analyses of the items.
“This was a barbaric attack against Jewish Australians,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said. “They were hunted down in broad daylight.”
Authorities noted they are still working to determine whether the devices were operational or intended for secondary targets.
Mal Lanyon, New South Wales Police Commissioner, said the suspects traveled to last month. Investigators will probe their reasons for the trip and the specific location in the Philippines they visited, Lanyon added.
The region has long been home to ISIS-linked networks. Muslim separatist groups—including Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines—once expressed support for ISIS and have in the past hosted small numbers of foreign militant combatants from Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
Decades of military offensives have significantly weakened Abu Sayyaf and other such armed groups, and Philippine military and police officials say there has been no recent indication of foreign militants in the country’s south.
Officials said there is currently no evidence that additional attackers or facilitators were involved in Sunday’s massacre, but they cautioned this assessment could change as investigators review digital devices, travel records, and thousands of seized documents.
Tuesday marked the first time that about the suspects’ ideologies.
More than two dozen people—ranging in age from 10 to 87—remain hospitalized following Sunday’s massacre. Ten of them, including three patients at a children’s hospital, are in critical condition.
Among the injured is Ahmed al Ahmed, a 42-year-old who was captured on video tackling and disarming one assailant before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then placing it on the ground. He has surgery scheduled for Wednesday to treat shotgun wounds to his left shoulder and upper body.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who met with Ahmed earlier, hailed him as “a true Australian hero.”
“We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our nation. We will not allow this country to be divided—that is what the terrorists seek. We will unite, embrace each other, and get through this,” Albanese added.
The older gunman was fatally shot, while his son was also receiving hospital treatment on Tuesday.
Albanese and leaders of some Australian states have pledged to already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare.
Officials divulged more information as public questions and anger grew on the third day after the attack—over how the suspects were able to plan and carry out the assault, and whether protected from .
Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had legally amassed a cache of six weapons.
“The suspected murderers, callous in how they allegedly coordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ability of their victims,” Barrett said. “It appears the were interested only in a quest for a high death tally.”