Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry says three Indonesians have been confirmed to have survived the multiple shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand today, while the fate of three more who were at one of the mosques are still uncertain.
“From the information we have gathered so far there were six Indonesians in the mosque. Three Indonesians managed to escape the shooting. We have made contact with them,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters this morning, as quoted by Detik.
“We are still looking for the other three Indonesian nationals,” Retno added, without going into specifics as to the likelihood of their survival.
According to the Foreign Ministry’s data, there are currently 330 Indonesians in Christchurch, 130 of whom are students.
An attack on two crowded mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers left multiple people dead, New Zealand police said, on what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”.
Witnesses spoke of seeing bloodied bodies, with children also believed to be among the dead, and police warned of “extremely distressing footage” of the incident circulating on the internet.
Police said four people — three men and a woman — had been taken into custody, and that they had found and neutralized a number of IEDS (improvised explosive devices).
A Palestinian man who was in one of the mosques said he saw someone being shot in the head.
Additional reporting by AFP
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