An afternoon of leisure at a bustling Sydney beach took an unexpected turn when what was thought to be festive fireworks turned out to be gunfire. One witness, enjoying a drink nearby, recounted the moment to 9News, describing how the noise initially seemed innocuous.

“We were just here having an ordinary Sunday afternoon and we just heard what sounded like fireworks,” he recalled, painting a picture of a typical day suddenly disrupted by chaos.

The beach, filled to capacity with sunseekers, became the backdrop for what unfolded next. “The beach was absolutely packed. And then there were a lot of fireworks going off. And then suddenly we saw thousands of people just running this way,” the witness continued, capturing the scene of panic that quickly spread among the crowd.

As the reality of the situation set in, he and others sought refuge. “So we all just went inside, holed up in the toilets. I’ve got a friend that’s holed up in a basement now. Everybody went inside,” he explained, highlighting the immediate instinct for safety.

After about 20 tense minutes, they emerged, only to face a similar scenario. “We were there for about maybe 20 minutes, came out again, and it was similar to this. And then we saw thousands of people running down the road towards us again, so again holed up, and we just locked ourselves down,” he concluded, recounting the surreal and unsettling sequence of events.

Andy Anthony, the owner of restaurant Macelleria Bondi on Campbell Parade, said he had arrived soon after the shooting.

He was told his staff and customers heard gunshots and ran.

He said some were sheltering inside the nearby Woolworths.

“Everyone ducked for cover, ran inside, we are just cleaning up the abandoned meals,” he said.

“They heard gunshots, ran inside, went out for the back.

“Now a lot of my staff are locked in Woolworths. It’s surreal.”

A worker at Hotel Bondi on Campbell Parade said they heard what they thought were gunshots.

“I saw people just running,” they said.

Hotel Ravesis, also on the oceanfront street, said it still had a room open for people “too frightened” to leave.

“We just saw out the window hundreds of people running up Hall Street. I thought it was a tsunami,” they said.

Journalist and 60 Minutes producer Amelia Ballinger, who lives in Bondi, was at a restaurant near the beach when she heard shots.

“I just said to the friend I was with, ‘Run, it’s a gun’,” she said.

“As we were running you could still hear the shots.”

She said they left their belongings and made it to a neighbour’s apartment.

A group of German travellers were sitting by the beach when they were told to flee by others who were running away.

“We took off our shoes and just like, started running up the street,” one told 9News.

One of the women became separated from her friends and was let into an restaurant which had locked the doors.

She said she was ushered into a cool room.

“I don’t know what happened. I was sitting like on a chair and everyone started screaming,” she said.

“They all were just like, ‘go on the ground, hide, hide. They are going to shoot us. You have to lay down on the ground’.”