A MASS shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said today.

The suspects were a father and son, authorities have said. The older man, whom state officials named as Sajid Akram, was shot dead. His son, Naveed, was being treated at a hospital.

A news conference by political and police leaders on Tuesday was the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects’ ideologies.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were based on evidence obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”

Mr Albanese and the leaders of some of Australia’s states have pledged to tighten the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996.

But, in the aftermath of the attack, anger has continued to grow with questions being raised about how the suspects were able to plan and enact it and whether Australian Jews had been sufficiently protected from rising anti-semitism.

Mr Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed his cache of six weapons legally.

Commissioner Barrett said: “The suspected murderers, callous in how they allegedly co-ordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ableness of their victims.

“It appears the alleged killers were interested only in a quest for a death tally.”

Earlier in the day the prime minister visited Ahmed al Ahmed in hospital. Mr Ahmed was injured during the attack but was captured on video tackling one of the shooters.

Mr Albanese told reporters that “it was a great honour to meet Mr Ahmed. He is a true Australian hero.”