'This is not New Zealand'

This is not New Zealand, the country's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reaffirmed on Saturday during a visit to a refugee centre here to show her solidarity with the Muslim community in the wake of the ghastly terror attacks at two mosques which claimed the lives of 49 people.

"You were quick to mention this is not the New Zealand that you know. I want to reaffirm that today. This is not New Zealand," she said. "A complex and comprehensive investigation is underway by police," The New Zealand Herald quoted Ardern as saying.

New Zealand's Attorney General, David Parker, also outlined that semi-automatic weapons will be banned in the Oceania country following the terror attack which has brought focus to the country's gun laws.

 

"How can it be right for this atrocity to be filmed by the murderer using a go-pro and live-streamed across the world by social media companies?" Parker said while echoing the Prime Minister's assurance that gun laws would change.

Meanwhile, 39 people are still being treated for wounds, out of which 11 people still remain critically injured at Christchurch Hospital and one child has been transferred to Auckland's Starship Hospital.

"Yesterday's terrorist attack took away the lives of 49 innocent people. It's hard to fathom the enormity of this act of terrorism...What happened yesterday is abhorrent," Canterbury DHB chief executive David Meates said.

Ardern outlined that five guns were used by the perpetrator - who held a gun license - out of which two were semi-automatic weapons and two were shotguns.

Children and adults alike were gunned down indiscriminately by what authorities believe to be one terrorist - Brenton Tarrant - who travelled between two packed mosques on Friday to carry out the shootings under 36 minutes.

Sympathies and condemnation are pouring in globally against the terror attack, which has shaken communities across the world.

The primary suspect, Tarrant, appeared before the court on Saturday on murder charges connected with Friday's terror attacks in Christchurch. He was remanded in custody without plea until April 5.