Fashion Designer Describes Hiding Under Van 'Convulsing with Fear' While Surrounded by Gunmen in Bondi Beach Shooting By Escher Walcott

Australian fashion designer Pip Edwards is recalling the harrowing moment she was caught in the crossfire at the Dec. 14 shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach as the gunmen surrounded her.

The 45-year-old recounted in an Instagram post on Monday, Dec. 15, how she hid under a van for 15 minutes during the deadly shooting as the gunmen, alleged to be Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, Sajid Akram, 50, opened fire at the crowds.

“The gunman fired his first round of shots right behind my girlfriend and me as we had just passed the bridge where they were standing, heading in the direction of the Jewish event/celebration on the Bondi grass,” wrote Edwards. “We immediately ducked between two parked vans as the shots continued to fire incessantly.”

Edwards said that she was “literally as close as two metres away” from the gunshots, as she searched desperately for cover.

“We had to immediately take refuge under a van and watched the gunman’s feet with his gun pace in front of the van right at our heads, using our van as his post,” she continued. “His feet were in front of the van and another gunman’s feet were behind, circling the van.”

The gunmen then became “distracted” as a nearby civilian “yelled” at them and they moved away, said Edwards.

“They shot at everything and everyone; surrounding cars were being hit, including our van. I was convulsing with fear, trapped, thinking this was it for us, just monitoring the movement of their feet,” she wrote. 

“The shots kept firing and we rolled from side to side under the van to hide behind the wheels, as the gunmen’s feet walked around us, trying not to be seen,” Edwards continued, adding that she was “in complete panic” throughout the ordeal.

“When the deafening gunshots finally stopped, our friend Chris broke through all the barriers to come find us, save us, and extract us from under the van,” she recalled.

At least 15 people were killed in the shooting, which targeted a Hanukkah event, with victims’ ages ranging from 10 to 87 years old. Alleged gunman Sajid was also shot and killed, BBC News, Sky News and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported.

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Edwards said that she is “beyond grateful to have survived” the incident.

“It’s an experience I can’t comprehend nor will probably fully ever grasp,” she wrote.

Edwards was reunited with her 19-year-old son in a car after the ordeal in a photo posted on her Instagram Stories on Monday.  “My boy is home,” she wrote over the image.