A witness to one of the Christchurch mosque shootings has spoken of the horror of what he says was 20 minutes of violence.
Ramzan Ali is an attendee of Masjid Al Noor mosque next to Hagley Park, and said the shooting started during a sermon for Friday prayers.
"The guns started... He just came in and was shooting. I actually didn't see him, I was just lying down on the bench thinking 'if I get up I'll get shot'," he recounted.
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"The blood was splashing on me and I thought, 'oh my God, what's going to happen to me now?' Fortunately I'm alive."
Mr Ali says he's sure the attack was premeditated, adding that he "[doesn't] expect these kind of things in New Zealand".
"There's no way to explain it. It took me about half an hour before my shaking stopped... It went for about 20 minutes," he said.
"When you get out, you don't look at what's happening - you just want to get out.
"I was thinking that he must run out of bullets, so what I was doing was basically waiting and praying to God, saying 'Please run out of bullets'.
"One guy was sitting there and told me [not to get up] - the next thing I know, the gunman shoots this guy... I know that guy, and he shot him straight in the chest."
Mr Ali says the gunman deserves the strongest possible punishment.
"There's no [understanding of the] importance of life for people. I think whoever this guy is, he should be punished like they do in the Middle East."
Newshub.
