Mosque reopens as shooting horror stories continue
A survivor of the Christchurch terror attacks has recalled how he was saved from the gunman’s bullets after being buried under the bodies of his fellow worshippers at the Masjid Al Noor.
Huzef Vohra lay motionless in Deans Ave mosque as the terrorist stalked from one room to another shooting.
Hidden from view by the bodies on top of him, Vohra, 21, described how the gunman would wait for a cellphone to ring, then fire at the sound.
The young civil engineer said the attack had robbed him of six friends, flatmates and relatives – all among the 42 murdered at the mosque. ‘‘It’s like I’ve lost my whole circle,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s like 80 per cent of my friends have gone.’’
But he and another housemate, Ashif Shaikh, said they are determined to worship there again, despite the horrors they witnessed.
Shaikh said: ‘‘It is the place we pray, where we meet, so we are ready for it. Our community comes here and we need it.’’
Vohra returned yesterday to collect the car of one of those flatmates who was killed.
The mosque was reopened after authorities officially returned it to the Muslim community, its interior renovated to a standard visitors said was better than before.
Speaking outside before the first visitors went in, Vohra said
‘It is the place we pray, where we meet, so we are ready for it.’ ASHIF SHAIKH, PICTURED ABOVE WITH HUZEF VOHRA
the attack had robbed him of an old classmate from Ara Institute of Canterbury and his father, two family friends and two relatives.
Recalling the attack, Vohra, who is originally from India, said: ‘‘I was underneath the dead bodies. I could have got a shot easily, but Allah did not will it for me. I could feel the bullets on the one who was in front of me. I could feel it as it missed my head, missed my chest, missed my leg.’’
Vohra described the silence as the gunman walked away, and then the horrific crescendo of a hail of bullets ringing out as he returned. ‘‘He would hand-pick and then he would shoot. It was