Several people were reportedly killed, and others injured, in a mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Sunday evening local time.

Two suspects were in custody, according to the New South Wales Police, but the statement warned it was a “developing incident” and urged people to avoid the area.

The attack took place at a Chanukah celebration attended by thousands of people and organized by the Chassidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement, according to Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism.

“I am in continuous contact with leaders of the Jewish community in Australia,” stated Chikli. “There are many casualties, including fatalities. I will provide updates as soon as additional details become available.”

“Anyone at the scene should take shelter. Police are on scene and more information will be provided when it comes to hand,” police stated, adding: “We are still asking people in the area to take shelter until we can determine what is happening.”

A spokesperson for NSW Ambulance told Australian media that medics were treating multiple victims at the scene and had evacuated at least six people to local hospitals.

“We have many, many units in the area. We are definitely treating multiple people and have multiple vehicles [responding],” the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the premier was aware of an active security situation. “We urge people in the vicinity to follow information from NSW Police,” the spokesperson stated.

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told Sydney radio station 2GB that the group’s director of media was injured in the attack, which he called “deliberate and very targeted.

“Hundreds of people were gathered. It’s a family event,” he said. “They heard, like, dozens of popping sounds. And people just started running, running over barricades, grabbing their children. It was mayhem.”

New South Wales state opposition leader Kellie Sloane, who was at the beach, called the shooting a “horrific attack on our way of life, a very targeted attack on our Jewish community,” speaking with Sky News.

“I was there when the shooting was still happening, and there was so many people. We were trying to we were trying to support people, we were trying to save people,” Sloane told the outlet.

Four months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Albanese to confront what he called a “tsunami of antisemitism” that had spread in Australia since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

 Netanyahu also slammed the decision by his Australian counterpart to recognize a Palestinian state while the Jewish state was still fighting “a war on behalf of Western civilization” as a “sign of weakness.”