‘It was a bloodbath. I saw children falling’: Eyewitnesses describe Sydney terror attack

Survivors and eyewitnesses to the deadly terror attack at a public Hanukkah party in Sydney on Sunday recounted people scrambling to safety as shots rang out and victims fell around them.

At least 15 people were killed and dozens were wounded when two gunmen opened fire on the event held at the Australian city’s iconic Bondi Beach.

Arsen Ostrovsky, who heads a Jewish community organization in Sydney and only arrived in the city two weeks ago, was hit in the head as he attended the event with his wife and children. He spoke to the local 9News outlet, a bandage wrapped around his blood-splattered head.

“It was absolute chaos” when the gunfire started, said Ostrovsky, a rights lawyer who’d lived in Israel for the past 13 years.

Ostrovsky, outgoing CEO of the Israel-based International Legal Forum, said he saw at least one gunman firing what looked like a shotgun “randomly in all directions.”

“I saw people hit, people fall to the ground. I saw children falling to the floor, elderly, invalids… It was an absolute bloodbath. Blood gushing everywhere. October 7, that was the last time I saw this,” he said, referring to the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel (Ostrovsky has previously described being at Kibbutz Be’eri days after the Hamas onslaught).

“I never thought I would see this in Australia. Not in my lifetime,” he said. “I got hit in the head, I’m bleeding, I’ve lost blood, there are people around me that are far worse.”

My friend Arsen Ostrovsky, injured in the horrific, bloody attack in Sydney on a Jewish community Hanukkah celebration: pic.twitter.com/4iUAWdAYig

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— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) December 14, 2025

Describing how he lost sight of his wife and children as the attack unfolded, he said, “There is no greater fear, no greater horror than not knowing where your family is.” He was eventually able to rejoin his loved ones, who were all safe.

Ostrovsky said he arrived in Australia two weeks ago “to work with the Jewish community, to fight antisemitism, to fight this bloodthirsty ravaging hatred,” referring to soaring antisemitism in the country since the October 7 Hamas attack that precipitated the war in Gaza.

Ostorovsky told the Daily Mail that “a bullet grazed my head” and “doctors said it was a miracle I survived.”

Haim Levy, who was also at Bondi Beach, told Israel’s Channel 12 that he was sitting with his wife, son, and daughter when the shooting started at the Hanukkah event.

“I suddenly saw smoke and heard cracks [of gunfire]. I couldn’t tell if it was into the air or at the crowd. But it was immediately clear that something [terrible] was happening.”

“I told my wife, ‘Run!’ She grabbed our daughter. I ran with my son. I hid with my son behind a car. For about 20 minutes, we heard gunfire over our heads.”

Levy said his son, aged two, was crying as they hid, and he tried to keep him quiet for fear that the terrorists would hear and come and kill them. “Thank God we survived, when bullets were flying in all directions… It seemed never-ending.”

“After about 20 minutes, I managed to jump over a fence [with my son] and get to our car, find my wife, and speed home,” he said.

Levy, who said he grew up in Israel, decried the “insane antisemitism” in Australia. “It was clear something like this would happen. I never imagined I’d be there with my wife and children.”

He blamed the Australian government for “abandoning” the Jewish community.

Crowds fled in fear from the beach in eastern Sydney, which draws huge numbers of surfers, swimmers, and tourists, especially at weekends.

“We heard the shots. It was shocking; it felt like 10 minutes of just bang, bang, bang. It seemed like a powerful weapon,” Camilo Diaz, a 25-year-old student from Chile, told AFP at the scene.

One witness who declined to be named said he personally witnessed six dead or injured individuals lying on the beach.

Another witness, who gave his name only as Marcus, said: “I was just getting ready to go home, and, like, I was packing my bag, got my flip-flops, was ready to catch my bus, and then I started hearing the shots.

“We all panicked and started running as well. So we left everything behind, like flip-flops, everything. We just ran through the hill,” he said. “I must have heard, I don’t know, maybe, like, 40, 50 shots.”

The grassy hill overlooking Bondi Beach was strewn with discarded items from people fleeing too fast to pack up, including an abandoned children’s stroller, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Paramedics tended to multiple people lying on the grass by the beach.

A British tourist said he saw “two shooters in black” when the gunfire broke out. “There was a shooting, two shooters in black with semi-automatic rifles,” Timothy Brant-Coles said, adding that he saw multiple people who had been shot and wounded.

Lachlan Moran, 32, from Melbourne, was waiting for his family nearby when he heard shots, he told The Associated Press. He dropped the beer he was carrying for his brother and ran.

“You heard a few pops, and I freaked out and ran away… I started sprinting. I just had that intuition. I sprinted as quickly as I could,” Moran said. He said he heard shooting off and on for about five minutes.

“Everyone just dropped all their possessions and everything and were running and people were crying, and it was just horrible,” Moran said.

Grace, 30, from Melbourne, who declined to give her last name, and her partner Joel Sargent, 30, told the AP they were in their hotel room when they heard a banging sound and looked out of their window to see people running down the street, hiding behind trees and cars.

“People were screaming, and the gun sounded so loud,” Grace said. “It was constant; it would have been over 50 [shots], easily.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the scenes at Bondi were “shocking and distressing.”

“My thoughts are with every person affected,” he said in a statement.