Nigerian-born imam, Alabi reveals how he escaped New Zealand attack

An imam with a Nigerian heritage, Lateef Alabi, one of the survivors of the attack on two New Zealand mosques, has explained how he escaped death.

Fifty people lost their lives when a gunman identified as Brenton Tarrant invaded two mosques in New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday.

Those who sustained injuries are being treated in hospitals.

Alabi, a leader in the Linwood mosque, said he was in the middle of his prayer when he heard gunshots.

The Nigerian said he stopped his payer immediately and peeped out through the window where he saw an armed man “heavily dressed”.

Alabi told everyone inside to get down and before he knew it, dead bodies were already lying on the floor.

According to him, the gunman dropped his gun when he ran out of bullets.

Then, he and a fellow worshipers followed the shooter as he left the mosque.

The other man, he said, picked up the machine gun and smashed it into the gunman’s car windscreen.

“He shot one brother coming towards the mosque; he shot him from the head. I stopped my prayer, I peeped through the window, and I saw the person with a machine gun, heavily dressed. By the time I looked on the ground and saw dead bodies I thought this is something else, this is a terrorist,” Alabi said.

“I started picking up the bodies to know who was dead and who was alive. I never thought this would happen in New Zealand, never, never, never, believe me.”