36 MINUTES
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern travelled to Christchurch on Saturday to comfort the Muslim community. She said in a news conference later that the gunman had planned to continue the killing spree if he had not been stopped.
Police say they caught him 36 minutes after being alerted of the incident at Al Noor mosque at 1:42 p.m. on Friday.
Shortly before that, gunman began the livestream, in which he was seen parking outside the mosque.
The video showed him pulling a gun from the rear of his car and heading into the mosque, where he fired at worshippers for about two minutes.
He went back to his car to reload, then returned to the mosque to kill more people.
The shooter then left the Deans Avenue mosque, driving for about seven minutes to the Linwood mosque, which is on the other side of Christchurch's botanical gardens.
He began shooting outside the Linwood mosque, killing several people walking towards the building. Some shots hit the mosque windows and walls.
After Aziz confronted him, the gunman was chased down by two police officers who blocked his car and captured him, police say.
He had two homemade bombs in the car, police say.
"Those two police officers acted with absolute courage," Police Commissioner Mike Bush said at a news conference on Sunday.
"They have prevented further deaths and risked their own lives to do so," he added.
Bush said armed police staff arrived at the first mosque within six minutes of an emergency call, and within 36 minutes, the gunman was in custody.
Speaking about the hours after the attack, Greg Robertson, head of surgery at Christchurch Hospital, said the scale of victims arriving had shaken his staff.
"We had patients that were delivered in cars ... rather than ambulances," Robertson said. "The ambulances start to arrive and then lots of ambulances arrived after that."
"It's just comprehending what is the incomprehensible."
