AMN

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today ordered an independent judicial inquiry into whether police and intelligence services could have prevented the Christchurch mosque attacks on March 15.

Ardern said a royal commission — the most powerful judicial probe available under New Zealand law — was needed to find out how a single gunman was able to kill 50 people in an attack that shocked the world.

New Zealand’s spy agencies have faced criticism in the wake of the attack for concentrating on the threat from Islamic extremism.