The emotional testimony of a daughter whose father was shot during the Bondi Beach terror attack brought Sunrise host Nat Barr to tears during a live broadcast. Victoria Teplitsky shared the harrowing details of her 86-year-old father's ordeal at the Channukah By The Sea event, where a shooting spree claimed 15 innocent lives and left 40 others injured.
A Father's Agony at Bondi Beach
Speaking to Nat Barr amidst a growing floral tribute at Bondi Beach, Teplitsky described the moment her father was caught in the violence. The attack, allegedly carried out by two men, Sajid Akram, 50, and his son, Naveed Akram, 24, erupted around 6.40pm on Sunday.
"My father was seated and, just as he got up, he was shot in the leg," Teplitsky recounted. "He fell down in an immense amount of pain and bleeding profusely." In a critical act of quick thinking, her father's girlfriend, Nadezhda, used a belt as a makeshift tourniquet to stem the bleeding until emergency services arrived.
Panic and Relief in a Hospital Ward
Teplitsky first learned of the incident when she called her father, knowing he would be at the event. "Nadezhda answered," she said. Alongside the "panic" in her voice, Teplitsky could hear her father moaning in agony as he was rushed to hospital. "I was happy to hear him moan because at least I knew he was alive," she admitted, highlighting the terrifying uncertainty faced by families.
The hospital became a focal point for Bondi's tight-knit Jewish community, now united in heartbreak. Teplitsky described an elderly woman in a nearby bed, desperately seeking news of her husband and son. Her husband had also been shot, while her son was hailed as a hero for diving on top of his grandchildren, sustaining three gunshot wounds in the process.
"The woman kept calling out 'where's my son' for hours until they received word he had survived," Teplitsky said. "(He's) a hero, he's going to be fine. But at that stage, none of us knew."
A Community's Grief and a Host's Emotion
Teplitsky's account is one of many devastating stories emerging from the atrocity, stories that visibly affected veteran presenter Nat Barr. "The stories keep coming, don't they?" Barr said, holding back tears during the broadcast. The segment underscored the profound human impact of the attack, moving beyond statistics to the raw, personal trauma experienced by victims and their families.
The incident has left an indelible mark on the Bondi community and the nation, as details of bravery, survival, and loss continue to surface in the wake of the tragedy.
