Bondi shooting as it happened: PM says Australia to establish national gun buyback scheme; men arrested in Liverpool had no confirmed links to Bondi gunmen, police say

This is where we’ll leave today’s live coverage.

Here’s what we learnt today:

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared that Sunday, December 21 will be an official “day of reflection”, and has encouraged Australians to light a candle at 6.46pm to mark exactly a week since the start of the Bondi terror attack. He also announced a gun buyback scheme, similar to the Howard government’s initiative following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, to take and destroy “hundreds of thousands” of guns off the streets. An official day of mourning for the Bondi terror attack is expected next year.
• Albanese attended the Great Synagogue in Sydney’s CBD on Friday night.

• Firearm owners in NSW will be allowed a maximum of four firearms each under proposed legislation to be tabled on Monday, Premier Chris Minns has announced. It will also reduce magazine capacities for category A and B firearms to a maximum of five to 10 rounds, which are currently unlimited, and introduce “extraordinary” powers to crack down on particular protests across the state. Sajid Akram, the 50-year-old gunman killed by police in Bondi on Sunday, legally held six firearms in his suburban Sydney home.

• Seven men who spent the night in custody after being dramatically arrested by heavily armed tactical police over fears they were heading to Bondi say it was all a “misunderstanding”, claiming they were targeted due to being Muslim, as they left Liverpool police station on Friday afternoon.

• Randwick grandmother Tania Tretiak, 68, has been identified as the 15th and final victim of the Bondi terror attack. Tretiak attended the Hanukkah event in Bondi when shots were fired. It comes as mourners farewell Boris and Sofia Gurman, the heroes who died after confronting Sajid Akram as he emerged from his vehicle to commence the terror attack. The rabbi conducting their joint funeral said they were “taken from us, not just because they were Jewish, but fighting for being Jewish”. The funerals for Edith Brutman and Boris Tetleroyd took place this afternoon.

• An estimated 700 surfers participated in a paddle-out at Bondi Beach this morning, paying tribute to the 15 lives lost, and coming together in a powerful moment of healing for the local community. Surfers took to the water at North Bondi after 6.30am, forming a circle past the surf break and splashing the water, an act emerging from surf culture.
• Fifteen victims who remain in hospital are showing signs of improvement, with four listed as critical but stable, meaning their condition is still life-threatening, but not expected to quickly deteriorate.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has attended the Great Synagogue in Sydney’s CBD.

“Tonight at the Great Synagogue in Sydney we honour the memory of those lost,” Albanese posted on Instagram.

“We stand with their families and the Jewish Australian community in this time of grief.

“All Australians stand together against antisemitism and hatred.”

Albanese’s visit comes after days of criticism from political opponents as well as some in the Jewish community and the media.

Read more: PM must return to Bondi and meet the moment

Seven men who spent the night in custody after being dramatically arrested by heavily armed tactical police over fears they were heading to Bondi say it was all a “misunderstanding”, claiming they were targeted due to being Muslim.

Almost 24 hours after being pulled from a car rammed by two LandCruisers, the men, from Melbourne, walked out of Liverpool police station on Friday afternoon, shaking hands and hugging one another as they emerged one by one.

Police say the arrest in south-west Sydney was sparked by information about a potential violent act being planned, with senior officers alleging the men held similar extremist ideology to the Bondi shooters.

One of the men told media outside the station that police were “absolutely bugging” to claim the men held extremist beliefs.

“They target us because we’re Muslims,” he told Nine News.

Read more: ‘Because we’re Muslims’: Men released after dramatic arrest by armed police

Signs of the horror that unfolded on Sunday at Bondi Beach remained on Friday.

A bullet hole punctured the windscreen of a red hatchback left at Archer Park.

A victim injured in the attack also photographed what appeared to be a bullet hole gouged into a metal beam at the site of the shooting, and said: “This is steel: imagine what it would do to a human body”.

Almost 24 hours after their dramatic arrest in Sydney’s south-west, seven men have been released from custody “pending further investigations”, NSW Police said in a statement.

Police arrested the men, aged between 19 and 24, “after receiving information that a violent act was possibly being planned”.

“Police acted quickly to prevent the advancement of any plan. There is no immediate safety risk to the community,” police said.

“Investigations will continue to review all available evidence and an investigation into the matter remains ongoing.”