The hero, like the villain of the Christchurch attack, is an Australian
Christchurch: Abdul Aziz, the man who has been described as hero after he attacked and chased off the terrorist at the Linwood Mosque is an Australian citizen who lived in Sydney for 27 years after leaving Afghanistan as a refugee.
Aziz, a father of eight, lived in Sydney and worked as a builder before moving to New Zealand about two and a half years ago.
As Aziz spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age outside the hospital in Christchurch he was embraced by two young men who kissed him and said: "You are our hero, you saved our lives."
Aziz was at Friday prayers at Linwood mosque with his four sons when he heard gunfire outside. As with some other witnesses he at first thought it was fireworks. Then he heard screaming and a man saying that people were being shot.
Aziz ran out of the mosque and grabbed the only weapon he could see at hand, a cordless handheld eftpos scanner on a desk by the door.
"Anyone would have done the same thing. We are all human beings. We love each other, we try to protect each other."
Outside he saw two bodies and an armed man in military-style fatigues with a helmet, alleged to be another Australian Brenton Tarrant. The gunman was by his car trying to retrieve another weapon.
"I didn't know if he was the good guy or the bad guy you know? And I said, 'Who are you?' and, I am sorry but I used some bad language and I swear to him.
"When he swear back at me I realise he is the bad guy and I threw the machine at him."
Aziz was determined to keep him out of the mosque. But the gunman ducked under the hurled machine.
"Then he managed to get another gun and start shooting at me. He probably did around four or five shots at me and I was ducking between the cars. I wanted him to be away from the mosque, so I called to him."
Aziz then found a shotgun earlier abandoned by the killer. He picked it up, pointed it at the killer and tried to fire.
"I pulled the trigger and I discovered it had no bullets."
The gunman did not see him. He was returning to the mosque, still shooting. Aziz chased him in.
Anyone would have done the same thing. We are all human beings. We love each other, we try to protect each other.
Abdul Aziz
For the first time, the gunman saw Aziz carrying a weapon.
"He dropped his gun and ran away. He might have run out of bullets. He ran back to his car and I managed to throw the gun on his window and smashed his windscreen," Aziz says.
"I chased him with the gun in my hands."
Windscreen smashed, the gunman drove off. Aziz ran back into the mosque where his sons were sheltering. Seven others lay dead.
"I saw a lot of injuries and deaths and I didn't know if all my sons were alright," Aziz says.
"I went but I couldn't see my boys because everyone had dived. My five-year-old was lying down and my 25-year-old was lying on top of him trying to cover him up. I didn't know if they were OK.
My 11-year-old son was screaming and shouting, 'Daddy are you all right? Are you all right?
"It was very hard. Very, very hard."
Aziz heard shouting outside and fearing the gunman had returned he ran back outside to confront him again. This time he found police who prevented him from re-entering the mosque. It was another hour before he learned that all his boys were alive.
The attack had taken minutes. Other witnesses have told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that around 80 people were in the mosque at the time.
It is impossible to know how many lives Aziz saved. At the Al Noor Mosque 42 people were killed. Aziz says he enjoyed his life in Australia but that he has come to "love this place [New Zealand] more."
Tarrant, 28, a white supremacist, has been charged with one count of murder in the slayings and a judge said on Saturday it was reasonable to assume more charges would follow.
Latef Alabi, the Linwood mosque's acting imam, said the death toll would have been far higher at the Linwood mosque if it wasn't for Aziz.