Deadliest shooting since world-leading gun reformspublished at 10:12 GMT
10:12 GMT
Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney
With police confirming nine civilians are dead, this attack has become the deadliest shooting in this country since the Port Arthur attack rocked the nation.
In 1996, 35 people were killed, and scores were hurt, when a lone gunmen opened fire at a historic site in Tasmania.
That attack was a turning point, famously prompting the government to introduce some of the world’s strictest gun control measures. There was a gun buyback scheme, and increased checks on owners, and attacks radically dropped.
We’ve only had a handful of mass shootings since, most of them horrific acts of domestic violence – not public place attacks like today.
This is an unfamiliar, and devastating, shock for Australia.