Alleged Bondi shooter charged with 59 offenses by Australian police

SYDNEY - The surviving alleged perpetrator of the fatal mass shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach had been charged with 59 offenses, Australian police said on Wednesday.

The police force in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) on Wednesday afternoon charged 24-year-old Naveed Akram with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act, following the attack that targeted an event celebrating the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Akram remained in hospital under police guard on Wednesday after waking from a coma on Tuesday.

A second alleged gunman, identified as Akram's 50-year-old father Sajid, was fatally shot by police at the scene of Sunday night's attack.

As well as the murder and terrorism offenses, Naveed Akram had been charged with one count each of discharging a firearm with an intent to cause grievous bodily harm, publicly displaying a prohibited terrorist symbol and placing an explosive in or near a building with intent to cause harm, and 40 counts of wounding with intent to murder.

Authorities on Tuesday said that the attack was motivated by Islamic State ideology and confirmed that two Islamic State flags and improvised explosive devices were found in a vehicle belonging to Naveed Akram.

There were 16 confirmed deaths following the attack, including Sajid Akram, with victims ranging in age from 10 to 87 years old. Forty-one people, including four children, were taken to hospital after the attack.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 20 injured people were still receiving care in Sydney hospitals, five of whom were in critical or critical but stable conditions.