CHRISTCHURCH, March 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — New Zealand police say they have detained four people in connection with deadly shootings at two mosques in Christchurch on Friday and have secured a number of improvised explosive devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dFour are in custody, three of them are men and one is a woman,\u201d Commissioner Mike Bush said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that there were \u201csignificant\u201d and \u201cmultiple\u201d fatalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commissioner Bush said the suspected IEDs found attached to the attackers\u2019 vehicles had been made safe by the military. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\nLocal media reported up six people were dead and that the South Island city had been placed in lockdown as police hunted for an \u201cactive shooter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dA serious and evolving situation is occurring in Christchurch with an active shooter,\u201d police said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dPolice are responding with its full capability to manage the situation, but the risk environment remains extremely high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Masjid al Noor was filled with worshippers, including members of the Bangladesh cricket team. One witness told stuff.co.nz he was praying in the Deans Ave mosque when he heard shooting and saw his wife lying dead on the footpath outside when he fled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another man said he saw children being shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An eyewitness told Radio New Zealand he heard shots fired and four people were lying on the ground, with \u201cblood everywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unconfirmed reports said the shooter was wearing military-style clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police commissioner Mike Bush said all schools in the city had been placed in lockdown in response to \u201ca serious ongoing firearms incident\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dPolice urge anyone in central Christchurch to stay off the streets and report any suspicious behaviour,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Central city buildings, including the Civic Offices and Central Library, were also locked down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city council offered a helpline for parents looking for kids attending a mass climate change rally nearby. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201dPlease do not try and come and collect your children until police say it is safe for people to come into the central city,\u201d they said. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHRISTCHURCH, March 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — New Zealand police say they have detained four people in connection with deadly shootings at two mosques in Christchurch on Friday and have secured a number of improvised explosive devices. \u201dFour are in custody, three of them are men and one is a woman,\u201d Commissioner Mike Bush said. He added […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}