Before the Shooting Attack... Bombs Thrown at Crowd on Bondi Beach but Did Not Explode

Life is gradually returning to normal after a week since the shooting incident at Bondi Beach (AFP).

Court documents published in Australia on Monday quoted the police as saying that homemade pipe bombs and one shaped like a tennis ball were thrown at a crowd on Bondi Beach before the shooting attack earlier this December, but they did not explode.

Fifteen people were killed and dozens injured in the attack that targeted a celebration of the Jewish Hanukkah holiday at Bondi Beach on December 14.

The attack shocked the country and sparked calls to tighten gun laws and intensify efforts to stop anti-Semitism.

According to the police, Sajid Akram (50 years old), one of the suspected gunmen who carried out the attack and was shot dead by police, owned six firearms. His son, Navid Akram (24 years old), was charged with 59 crimes, including murder and terrorism.

As stated in the police report published by the court, the two suspected gunmen planned the attack over several months and visited Bondi Park overlooking the beach for reconnaissance two days before carrying it out.

Photos included in the police report showed the father and son training with firearms in an isolated rural area in New South Wales, Australia's most populous state which includes the city of Sydney.

Police found a video recorded in October on one of the gunmen’s mobile phones showing them sitting in front of an Islamic State flag and making comments in English about the reasons for the attack, while condemning the actions of "Zionists."

The police report stated that after 2 a.m. (1500 GMT) on the day of the attack, the two men were filmed by surveillance cameras carrying long, bulky items wrapped in covers from a rented house in the suburb of Campsie to a car.

They later drove the car to Bondi around 5 p.m. (0800 GMT).

Police believe the items wrapped in covers were a single-barrel shotgun, a Beretta rifle, three pipe bombs, a tennis ball-shaped bomb, and a large homemade explosive device.

Police say the two men threw the pipe bombs and the tennis ball bomb at the crowd in Bondi Park before starting to shoot, but the explosive devices did not detonate, according to the statement submitted to the court.

Police later found 3D-printed parts for a shotgun component, bomb-making equipment, and Qurans at the Campsie house.