A man celebrated for saving lives after wrestling a gun from one of an alleged attacker during a mass shooting in Australia has received a cheque for more than A$2.5 million ($1.65 million), after tens of thousands of people contributed to a donation website.
Ahmed Al Ahmed hid behind parked cars in Bondi Beach before charging at one of the suspected gunmen from behind, seizing his weapon and knocking him to the ground.
He suffered gunshot wounds after apparently being fired on by a second suspected gunmen and remains in hospital after undergoing surgery.
Th father of two was presented on Friday with an oversized cheque at his St George Hospital bed by Zachery Dereniowski, a social media influencer and co-organiser of the GoFundMe page, videos posted online showed.
More than 43,000 people worldwide contributed to the fund-raising, including billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman who gave A$99,999 and shared the fund-raiser on his X account.
When handed the cheque, he asks: “I deserve it?”, to which Mr Dereniowski replies: “Every penny”.
When asked what he would say to the people who donated, Mr Al Ahmed said: “To stand with each other, all human beings. And forget everything bad … and keep going to save life.”
“When I saved the people I [did it] from the heart because it was a nice day, everyone enjoying celebrating … everyone was happy and they deserve to enjoy,” he said, raising his uninjured fist in the air.
“This country [is the] best country in the world, best country in the world, but we’re not going to stand and keep watching – enough is enough. God protect Australia. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie.”
The shop owner did not say what he planned to do with the money. Mr Al Ahmed, 43, left his hometown in Syria‘s north-west province of Idlib nearly 20 years ago to seek work in Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has visited Mr Al Ahmed in hospital to praise him for his bravery.
Fifteen people were killed and dozens wounded on Sunday after two gunmen opened fire at people celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah at the famous beach.
Authorities allege a 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram who was shot dead by police, and his 24-year-old son, Naveed, who was critically wounded, carried out the attack.
Gun buyback
Mr Albanese said the country would use a sweeping buyback scheme to “get guns off our streets”.
Mr Albanese vowed to toughen laws that allowed the suspected shooters to own six high-powered rifles. “There is no reason someone living in the suburbs of Sydney needed this many guns,” he said.
Australia would pay gun owners to surrender “surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms”.
It would be the largest gun buyback since 1996, when Australia cracked down on firearms in the wake of a shooting that killed 35 people at Port Arthur.
Mr Albanese urged Australians to light candles at 6.47pm on Sunday to mark “exactly one week since the attack unfolded”.
At Bondi Beach, hundreds of swimmers and surfers paddled out to form a circle in the ocean on Friday morning in another gesture to honour the dead.