Australia announces gun buyback as nation mourns Bondi shooting victims

Australia will use a sweeping buyback scheme to "get guns off our streets", Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday as hundreds plunged into the ocean to honour Bondi Beach shooting victims.

Sajid Akram and his son Naveed are accused of opening fire on a Jewish festival at the famed surf beach on Sunday, killing 15 people in one of Australia's deadliest mass shootings.

Albanese vowed to toughen laws that allowed 50-year-old Sajid to own six high-powered rifles.

"There is no reason someone living in the suburbs of Sydney needs this many guns," he said.

Australia would pay gun owners to surrender "surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms".

Australia will remember those slain at Bondi with a national day of reflection, the prime minister said.

Albanese urged Australians to light candles at 6:47 pm (0747 GMT) on Sunday, December 21, "exactly one week since the attack unfolded".

Many hundreds returned to the ocean off Bondi Beach on Friday in another gesture to honour the dead.

Swimmers and surfers paddled into a circle as they bobbed in the gentle morning swell, splashing water and roaring with emotion.

"They slaughtered innocent victims, and today I'm swimming out there and being part of my community again to bring back the light," security consultant Jason Carr told AFP.

"We're still burying bodies. But I just felt it was important," the 53-year-old said.

"I'm not going to let someone so evil, someone so dark, stop me from doing what I do and what I enjoy doing."

Carole Schlessinger, a 58-year-old chief executive of a children's charity, said there was a "beautiful energy" at the ocean gathering.

"To be together is such an important way of trying to deal with what's going on," she told AFP.

"It was really lovely to be part of it. I personally am feeling very numb. I'm feeling super angry. I'm feeling furious."