hello this is bbc news with xxxx. hello this is bbc news. the headlines... brenton tarrant, the main suspect in the new zealand mosque shootings, in which 49 people were killed, has appeared in court on a single murder charge. the bravery of the victims, the father who lost his life trying to tackle the gunman, his 21 year old son also died. his family speak of their heartache. i saw that video and the first thing i wanted to see was the look in his eyes. i did not see an iota of fear and his eyes and that made me proud. what a brave man he was. tributes are paid to former love island contestant, mike thalassitis, who has

died aged 26. more than 60 flood warnings are in place across england and wales as heavy rain leaves hunderds of homes without power. and in sport, wales beat ireland to win the six nations, completing the grand slam in cardiff. let's return to artist for our top story. well we're waiting for new zealand police to give us an update the shootings in christchurch. my colleague sharanjit leyl is in christchurch for us. those floral tributes building up behind you. that is right, they have pretty much sprung up all across christchurch here, and a number of

memorials have sprung up, floral tributes you mentioned and lots of notes of support as well and in solidarity with the muslim community and where i am right now is very close to one of the site of the attacks, the mosque isjust that way and it is two days after the fact that security is incredibly high and we still see the police out and media of course have been covering this story and as we know, details of this happen coming out to be the that the suspect as a 28—year—old australian, brenton tarra nt, that the suspect as a 28—year—old australian, brenton tarrant, who appeared in court yesterday. he is a self—professed white supremacist and live streamed his attack on facebook. let we know is that the prime minister has held several press c0 nfe re nces prime minister has held several press conferences and visited the victims of the attack at the hospital here and we are also waiting to hear from the police

commissioner as well, who will have more details about how this attack took place. but certainly the community here are all unified. they have been horrified at this, nothing like this has happened in new zealand's history and it is the worst terrorist attack ever. the threat level was lifted from low too high for the first time in history and people are really shaking here at christ church. it has been let's find out the latest from the police stop with the operation and the investigation has at... i want to say that the number of people who have died in this awful event has now risen to 50. as of last night we we re now risen to 50. as of last night we were able to take all of the victims

from both of those scenes and in doing so, we have located a further victim. so that brings the number of those who have died to 50. i also wa nt those who have died to 50. i also want to say that the number of injured is also 50. 36 of want to say that the number of injured is also 50.36 of those remained in christchurch hospital where they are being treated with the utmost care and professionalism from medical staff and you do remain critical and we also have one child being well looked after at the hospital. in terms of the people that were spoken about that have been arrested, as you know the 28—year—old male appeared in court yesterday, charged with murder and has been remanded till the 5th of april to appear at the high court. you will also know that to other

people were apprehended at accord and during this operation. and a firearm when he sees from them. one of those persons, a woman has been released without charge. the man in that vehicle has been charged with firearms offences and at this point we do not believe that they were involved in these attacks. some of you will also be aware that another man was arrested as a result of this investigation. what i can say is an 18—year—old man will appear in court oi'i 18—year—old man will appear in court on monday. but that arrest was tangential to this matter and we do not believe that he was involved in this attack either. further to this ican this attack either. further to this i can say you will see an immediate

reporting that a list of victims names have been shared with family. that list was compiled as a result of work done with victims and with senior religious leaders and was done to get some certainty to victims families. this is not a formal list and we will be unable to share exact details of victims until they have been formally identified. that part of the investigation and response is continuing as quickly and professionally as possible and we will keep you updated. and terms of security, right across the country, the new zealand police and

other emergency services remain absolutely vigilant to keep all of new zealanders and everyone who lives here or visits here safe from harm. in terms of the security we have around mosques, around new zealand, that will continue until we believe there is no threat. thank you very much, i am happy to answer questions if i can. you very much, i am happy to answer questions ifi can. inaudible it is difficult to be conclusive but my understanding is that even those that were killed outside of that mosque were visiting the mosque. now, said that is when the process of what we have to do is determine

the cause of death so we have been working with pathologists and working with pathologists and working with pathologists and working with coroners and the chief corner to complete that process, we have to be absolutely clear on the cause of death and confirm their identity before that can happen but we are so aware of identity before that can happen but we are so aware of the cultural and religious needs so we are doing that as quickly and sensitively as possible. inaudible .we are possible. inaudible . we are moving that as professionally but as quickly as possible. because we absolutely feel for the victims of this tragedy. inaudible yes, absolutely. you have all seen online video of the arrest of the 28—year—old. he was stopped because he was believed to be a direct

threat and our staff acted with absolute courage and intervening and had to use some force and deploy tactical options to make that happen but again they put themselves in harms way to stop any further attack andi harms way to stop any further attack and i do believe they did prevent further attacks. the two i spoke of earlier were stopped at a cordon and where arrested because they were in possession of a firearm and will be charged before the court on that but of course we had to do everything we could to ensure ourselves and the public as to whether or not they we re public as to whether or not they were related to this attack. the fourth person went to i think assist children in the area to get them safely and did decide to arm themselves which was not the right approach. inaudible

we are working through those matters. at this moment, only one person has been charged in relation to these attacks. i will not be saying anything conclusive until we absolutely are convinced as to how many people were involved. we hope to be able to give that advice over the next few days. did he obtain the firearm licence through australia... we are working through the absolute detail on that but i can tell you that it was a new zealand firearms licence which he obtained in 2017 in new zealand. did he modify beyond... we are still working through that but it is quite obvious that he

modified a category a firearm. can you tell us about the two police officers... those two police office rs officers... those two police officers acted with absolute courage andi officers acted with absolute courage and i am so proud of what they have done that prevented further deaths and again risked their own lives to do so. it is wet police officers come to deal every day but at the same time it is myjob to make sure that they have the equipment in the safety equipment to keep themselves as safe as possible. how are they doing, are they still working? that they are overwhelmed and humbled by they are overwhelmed and humbled by the feedback that they are getting and if you asked and they will tell you they were just doing theirjob. lam not you they were just doing theirjob. i am not going to go into their identities but they have been given lots of support but their identities will be made known at some stage.

inaudible not to police and not prior to the attack, was forwarded to us sometime during the day and obviously by some of the recipients but not at a time prior to the attack. we are working through that as we speak and we have been working through that for some time and we work with government in this space and i think we will be hearing more on that today from the prime minister and others. would be 28—year—old be potentially charged under... absolutely we are considering all of those but of course we will work towards the cranes act charges as a priority, i have already spoken about how many victims of day to make these attacks there are and that will prevent stomach present itself in the

charges. —— 20 cranes act. just one at that stage but of course that will change. we are working through that right now but as you know what support is being offered to the families. we have a large contingent of ethnic liaison officers working with religious leaders and other religious appoint people to give every assistance to those people. we have family liaison teams and we have family liaison teams and we have people we got involved in this, people like the deputy commissioner, and others... have been deeply involved in giving support to families around the christchurch earthquake said they are very experienced and this and unfortunately we have been through traumatic things before and our

staff know exactly how to deal with the situations and i tape my hat off to them because there is such an outpouring of grief that you understand and we have to support those people and meet their needs. there absolutely will be volunteers, thank you. could you tell us when the police was informed about this... now, by the time we were notified, the attack had taken place. thank you very much everyone stop you. that was the new zealand police commissioner there, giving us an update on the latest details following the shooting in christchurch a new zealand so what we have learned is the number of dad has increased by one, at 250. the

latest body was found at the mosques while they were removing the bodies from the mosques. so we now have a number of 50 people dead, 50 injured and 36 are currently being treated at the christchurch hospital, two are critical and we understand one child is included in the injured as well. as far as the arrests go, to arrests that were made at a police court and, we know that neither of those two were involved in the shooting. 0ne those two were involved in the shooting. one of the people that was arrested that have a firearm on hand and he has been charged with a firearm offends. 0ne and he has been charged with a firearm offends. one of the state was a woman and she has been released without charge. there has been another arrest, an 18—year—old man was arrested and he is due to appear in court on monday. also confirmed by the new zealand police commissioner there, there was no

involvement in the incident,