Eleven March 15 victims may have survived if mosque's emergency door worked

Monday, 20 May 2024

The 51 victims of the Christchurch terror attacks on March 15, 2019.

A quarter of the people killed at the Masjid an-Nur during the Christchurch terror attacks may have survived if the mosque’s emergency door had opened.

Approximately 190 worshippers were inside the Al Noor mosque for Friday prayers at 1.40pm on March 15, 2019, when terrorist Brenton Tarrant walked in and opened fire, killing 44 people and injuring dozens more.

As the crowd scrambled to escape, the emergency door in the south-east corner of the main prayer room wouldn’t open, causing a pile-up. The glass panel at the bottom of the door was eventually smashed so people could crawl through.

The faulty door issue, known in part as issue 13, will be examined when deputy chief coroner Brigitte Windley’s first phase coronial inquest into the attacks resumes at the Christchurch Justice Precinct on Monday.

Ahmad Alayedy, a survivor of the attack at Al Noor who broke through the door’s glass.

The court has identified 11 victims potentially hindered by the door not opening. But the door opening was no guarantee of survival - at least one person died after escaping through the broken glass.

Survivors Ahmad Alayedy and Mohammad Siddiqui were among those who broke through the glass and escaped. In November, they told the coroner of the door’s failure to open and having to break through it, then hiding from the gunman in a car park.

After the terrorist walked back out the front door of the mosque and spotted people hiding in the rear car park, the pair were shot.

“[The gunman] looked me in the eyes and then started to shoot me,” Alayedy told the inquest.

Siddiqui was shot in the arm.

“I felt a strong blast on my left arm,” he said in November.

“I dropped my phone and fell to the ground and put my phone on speaker and heard my wife asking me if I was OK. I was screaming in pain and could feel warm blood spilling out of my jacket.”

The emergency door in the south-east corner of the main prayer room at the Al Noor mosque, otherwise known as door D.

From Monday, the inquest is expected to hear evidence from 16 witnesses over two weeks, including survivors and other members of the Muslim community, as well as staff who engaged with the door prior to the attacks, or as part of its repairs afterwards.

The focus will be on the locks on the door (known as door D), including the recent installation of electro-magnetic locks, regulatory compliance issues and those responsible for them.

Expert evidence on the mechanisms that may have caused the door’s failure on the day would be heard at a later hearing, likely this year.

The second phase of the inquiry, set down for four weeks in October, will focus on firearms licensing - known as issue 10.

Coroner Windley’s findings on issues 1 to 9, and 13 - the events on the day of the attacks - would not be made until all of the issue 13 evidence on door D had been heard.

Her findings are likely to be accompanied by comments or recommendations to reduce the chances of future deaths in similar circumstances.

The coroner has no jurisdiction to make findings of liability, culpability or negligence.

“At the heart of each of these 51 inquiries is the persons’ lives who’ve been lost”, she previously said.

The inquest was not about liability or compensation, she said, “but it is about accountability on actions and inactions”.