New Zealand Shooting: Nation in grief as people pay tribute to victims

World
Europe

03:39

People in Christchurch have headed to sites near the mosques to pay their respects to the victims and their families. Our correspondent Owen Poland reports from Christchurch.

They have come in their thousands over the past two days, night and day, to pay their respects to the dead. Many were young. And there was also the not so young.

This is a nation united in grief. And everywhere, raw emotion on display as many tried to make sense of the worst mass murder in New Zealand history.

JACKY PLATO CHRISTCHURCH RESIDENT "I just believe that we're all one big family here in New Zealand and even though I don't know any of the people I just believe we have to show them that we care here in New Zealand."

From the church group singing 'Amazing Grace', to the Hells Angels Motorcycle gang that came bearing bunches of flowers, the grieving has somehow crossed a cultural divide.

A Maori delegation visiting from Auckland offered a traditional song of prayer. And then there were the marching girls with their formal salute and quick step. And the sharing of grief is appreciated in the Muslim community.

ABU HAMZA AUSTRALIAN ISLAMIC CLERIC "Your support is overwhelming, I just want you to know that. And we're not going to allow a few fanatics to divide our community, we're one."

"If anything, we're going to come closer to one another and we're going to recognize that there's no difference between black or white, Christian or Muslim or Jew."

But everywhere you look there's also a constant reminder that this is still a crime scene, from the heavily armed Police to the forensic teams searching the streets for evidence. And just metres down the road, the Al Noor mosque where 42 of the 50 victims were brutally murdered.

OWEN POLAND CHRISTCHURCH "Because so many Muslim leaders were killed in the attack, imans are flying into Christchurch from around New Zealand as part of a National Co-ordination team to plan funerals and burials so that families can start their traditional three days of mourning."

ABU HAMZA AUSTRALIAN ISLAMIC CLERIC "We're all shattered. This is, we're still stunned by what has happened. We cannot believe it. I think the last country that we'd thought that terrorism would take place is this beautiful country which is New Zealand. But it has happened."

But the message, first coined by the Prime Minister, is coming loud and clear from New Zealand.

JACKY PLATO CHRISTCHURCH RESIDENT "This is not New Zealand, this is not what happens here. We care and we love these people, so that's why I've just bought a little tribute to show them that we do care."

And, if anything, last week's atrocity has brought the entire country closer together. Owen Poland, CGTN, Christchurch, New Zealand.