'Mate, get away from here, something bad's happened': How BBC reporter's day at the beach turned to fear

'Mate, get away from here, something bad's happened': How BBC reporter's day at the beach turned to fear

Tessa Wong - Asia reporter

Mon, December 15, 2025 at 11:48 PM UTC

7 min read

Sunday dawned hot and clear at Bondi - not a cloud in the sky, the sun shining as the waves crashed onto the sand.

It was a day made for the beach. By midday, the entire stretch was heaving with thousands of people and the sea was full of swimmers and surfers. Our family of four, on holiday at Bondi Beach, was among them.

As we headed to the beach, crossing on a footbridge from the carpark of Campbell Parade, I noticed people were setting up white tents on the grass next to a children's playground.

A truck arrived, carrying a climbing wall. Later we would learn they were preparing for a Jewish community event, called Chanukah by the Sea, to celebrate the start of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

In the late afternoon, loud upbeat music boomed from the speakers and across the beach. The event had begun. Our family packed up our things at the beach at about 18:00 local time (07:00 GMT) to go back to the holiday home we had rented nearby.

As we crossed the footbridge again, we saw hundreds of people - families with young children and grandparents - at the event. A stage had been set up for live performances with rows of chairs set out in front. Activity stations and stalls lined the green. The mood was relaxed and festive as laughter and children's cries floated in the air.

Scores more people were streaming into the event via an entry point with what looked like bag checks. Metal barriers had been set up to fence the event off from the rest of the green, but there appeared to be minimal security.

As the event looked like it could have food stalls, I suggested to my husband we check it out for dinner. "Let's just get pizza back at the house," he sighed - the kids were getting cranky and needed a shower.

So I went back with the children, while my husband stopped by a pizzeria for a takeaway.

A picture of Bondi Beach as the sun is starting setting. People can be seen sitting on towels and at the edge of the water. Buildings can be seen int he background — BBC reporter Tessa Wong took this picture as she left Bondi Beach early on Sunday evening, shortly before the attack [BBC/Tessa Wong]

Half an hour later, he returned home with the pizzas, and a worried look. While he was buying dinner, people had run past him in a panic. One of them stopped to say, "Mate, get away from here, something bad's happened."

We could hear police sirens and the roar of helicopters. We checked the news, and I quickly went to the scene, which was just 100m from where we were staying.

Police officers were just starting to cordon off the car park in front of the footbridge where my family and I had crossed over - and which the attackers used, not even an hour later, as a vantage point to shoot at the festival we had seen earlier.

Many people had gathered at a corner close to the cordon where there were bars and restaurants. Lively music blared during a beautiful sunset - an incongruous setting for what had become a deadly evening at the beach.

A group of people walk towards a police officer. It is dark, and the people are lit by red light. The police officer has his back to the camera, two women are wearing summer dresses, while a man is dressed in a shirt and trousers, and wearing a kippah. Another boy walks away, wearing a white t-shirt with Bondi written on it — [EPA]

People were anxiously milling about, some crying and in shock. A few were desperately trying to get in touch with their loved ones who were stuck in the area that was being cordoned off.

"My daughter's at the surf club just over there, and I can't contact her," one woman told me, her eyes filling with tears. Some were arguing with police at the cordon, insisting they needed to find their relatives or get to their cars or homes.

I caught a man running past - he told me his name was Barry. He had just fled the festival with his two children. When he heard gunshots, they dropped to the ground, he said.

"And as we're lying there on the floor, with my kids, I saw a shooter or two on the bridge on the side towards Bondi beach, shooting at all of us," he said. "It was pandemonium and chaos."

Soon the restaurants and bars on the corner shut down, even as the crowd of onlookers and media grew.

As the night wore on, police and emergency vehicles moved in and out of the zone, clearing what we learnt later was a car filled with IEDs.

A fierce wind whipped up from the beach, as officers tried to hold the cordon.

The next morning, the main stretch of Bondi was deserted. Uncertainty, shock and anxiety still lingered. At the police cordon, a crowd thronged a cafe, buying coffees while worriedly discussing what had happened the previous night.

Watching the scene were Bondi residents Ali Pattillo, Abby Agwunobi and Brooke Schlesinger. The three women, all Americans, live in an apartment overlooking the shooting site. When they heard the gunshots, they thought it was fireworks.

"I started hearing people kind of screaming and running, grabbed the dog and hid in the bathroom," Ms Pattillo said. "And then you could just sort of hear the entire thing play out in this like horrible dream."

Ms Schlesinger said the attack was such a shock because "what appealed to us most about the Australian lifestyle is that sense of security and safety and community".

Although the Bondi community was "incredibly tight", Ms Agwunobi said she was worried about "the backlash and fallout that might happen from this", particularly with "the kind of climate with people being very anti-immigration."

"So, yeah, I'm very afraid for the next few days. And my heart just goes to the Jewish community as well because... it's just such a violation to happen, especially on a holy celebration".

Across the street, some people began laying out bouquets of flowers, balloons and an Australian flag at the corner of a primary school, in an impromptu memorial for the dead.

Soon, more people arrived to grieve at the spot. Some draped Israeli flags around their shoulders and wore kippahs, or Jewish skullcaps. People wept openly and embraced one another.

Others expressed fear and despair, including Jewish people who said they had been feeling vulnerable after a spate of antisemitism-related offences. Yvonne Haber, a Bondi resident who is Jewish, said an attack like this has "been waiting to happen, and we've been saying this is gonna happen. And now that it's happened... it's absolutely horrific."

Candles, flowers and pebbles surround a sign that says 'united, no more hate'. — Thousands of flowers have been laid outside the Bondi Pavilion [Reuters]

As the sun began to set, I went to Bondi Pavilion, which had become an enormous shrine for for mourners after police removed part of the cordon.

Israeli and Australian flags hung on the closed gates of the pavilion, as hundreds of people gathered to lay wreaths, bouquets, candles and pebbles from the beach. The enormous pile of flowers framed a handwritten sign: "We stay united, no more hate, just love."

As 18:47 neared - the time of the attack the day before - a group of local Jewish leaders stepped forward with a large menorah with candles. They announced they were going to light the candles - a ritual associated with Hanukkah - to remember those killed in the attack, and urged the crowd to light their own candles from the menorah and take it home with them.

"We invite the crowd to take the light, to spread peace and tolerance. We have survived for thousands of years... light will always prevail," Rabbi Yossi Shuchat announced to the crowd.

Then the group began singing traditional Jewish songs, with many in the crowd joining in. Their voices soared, cracked with grief, enveloping those gathered in a wave of pure emotion.

A woman behind me quietly sobbed as she sang and clapped along to the more spirited songs. At one point, the crowd broke out into the Australian national anthem.

Afterwards, Rabbi Shuchat told me that he and his friends had decided that morning to hold the ceremony for the victims - and to make a powerful statement.

"Darkness has no power where light arrives, and therefore we implore everyone to be that light in their surroundings. Don't allow evil to come. The best way to banish evil is to shine a light."

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