Ahmed Al Ahmed, the man who tackled and disarmed one of the Bondi beach attackers, walks onto the Sydney Cricket Ground during a ceremony honouring emergency workers and survivors of the shooting, before the start of fifth Ashes cricket Test match between Australia and England, 4 January, 2026. Photo: AFP
Ahmed Al Ahmed, who disarmed one of the shooters in the Bondi Beach attack, has been loudly applauded at the fifth Ashes cricket test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Before the match started, there was a special ceremony to mark the 15 lives lost in the shooting attack last month and to pay tribute to a representative group for their bravery in responding to the attack.
The group were cheered warmly by the crowd who rose to acknowledge them, with the biggest clapping for Al Ahmed, who emerged to walk through a guard of honour by the two cricket teams.
Al Ahmed's left arm was in a sling. He had needed surgeries for gunshot injuries in the attack, and was widely acknowledged as a hero after footage had shown him sneaking up behind one of the two shooters and wrestling a gun from him.
In an interview with CBS News in the US last week, Al Ahmed reflected on the ordeal.
"I jumped onto his back and hit him… 'Drop your gun, stop doing what you're doing,'" he recalled saying to the gunman he disarmed.
"No, I didn't worry about anything… my target was just to take the gun from him and to stop him from killing a human being.
"I feel something, a power in my body, my brain. I don't want to see people killed in front of me, I don't want to see blood, I don't want to hear his gun, I don't want to see people screaming.
"My soul asked me to do that.''
- ABC, RNZ Sport
