As the bodies of some victims were due to be released to their families, a list circulated by relatives showed they ranged in age from three to 77 and included at least four women.

Ardern said on Sunday that her office had received the manifesto some nine minutes before the attack.

“It did not include a location, it did not include specific details,” she said, adding that it was sent to security services within two minutes of receipt.

For almost three days forensics teams have been working through multiple crime scenes – at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques as well as a house in Dunedin, the southeastern city where the Tarrant lived.

Bodies of those he gunned down had remained inside the mosque awaiting autopsies and identification by increasingly distraught family members desperate to begin Muslim burial rites.

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Islamic custom dictates that the dead should be buried within 24 hours, but strained authorities, desperate to make sure no mistakes are made or the complex investigation harmed, said a quick process was difficult.

Authorities said 34 people remain in hospital.

Among those fighting for their lives was four-year-old Alin Alsati. The pre-schooler was praying alongside her father Waseeim at the Al Noor mosque when she was shot at least three times.

Her father, who was also shot, recently emigrated to New Zealand from Jordan.

Amid the shock, outrage and recriminations that have consumed New Zealand, tales of heroism and self-sacrifice emerged.

Police and eyewitnesses say a second attack by the gunman was partly thwarted by Abdul Aziz, 48, a refugee who was born in Afghanistan.

Aziz said he charged at the gunman outside the Linwood mosque when someone shouted that someone had opened fire. The gunman had already killed dozens at the Al Noor mosque nearby, and on the streets.

“He had on army clothes. I wasn’t sure if he was the good guy or the bad guy. When he swore at me, I knew that he’s not the good guy,” Aziz said.

When he realised the mosque was being attacked, he ran towards the gunman, picking up a credit card machine as a makeshift weapon.

The gunman ran back to his car and got another gun. Aziz said he threw the credit card machine, ducking between the cars as he opened fire.

He then picked up a gun dropped by the shooter and pulled the trigger, but it was empty: “I was screaming at the guy, come over here, come over here – I just wanted to put his focus on me.”

Aziz said the gunman went inside the mosque, and he followed, eventually confronting the shooter again.

“When he saw me with the shotgun in my hands, he dropped the gun and ran away toward his car. I chased him,” he said.

“He sat in his car and with the shotgun in my hands, I threw it through his window like an arrow. He just swore at me and took off.”

Aziz said four of his children were with him at the mosque when the attack occurred.

Nearly 100 Muslim worshippers who had taken cover in the mosque as the rampage unfolded were left unharmed.

Another man, Naeem Rashid from Pakistan, was seen on the gunman’s video confronting the shooter before he was killed, the BBC reported. Rashid’s 21-year-old son, Talha, was also killed.

The death toll climbed to 50 when police found another body at the Al Noor mosque, where more than 40 people died after a gunman burst in and opened fire on worshippers with a semi-automatic rifle with high-capacity magazines, driving to attack a second mosque.

The youngest victim on an unofficial list was three-year old Mucaad Ibrahim. A family friend said Mucaad was born in New Zealand to parents from Somalia.

“They were former refugees. It’s completely devastating of course. They were fleeing violence and war. This was supposed to be a safe haven. It brings back trauma,” said Guled Mire, a family friend.

Around Christchurch, New Zealand and the world there have been vigils, prayers, memorials and messages of solidarity.

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Across the Tasman Sea, Australians shocked that such an atrocity in their sister nation could be perpetrated by one of their own, vowed to provide any help they can.

Tarrant’s family in Australia said Sunday they were stunned and “shattered” by his alleged horrific deed.

“We’re all gobsmacked, we don’t know what to think,” Brenton Tarrant’s grandmother, Marie Fitzgerald, told Australia’s Channel Nine network.

“It’s just so much... to take in that somebody in our family could do anything like this,” Fitzgerald said from her home in New South Wales state.

Tarrant grew up in the small town of Grafton and showed no signs he would later become enthralled with white nationalist ideology while travelling in Europe and then turn that hatred into violence.

Flanked by armed police, the former personal fitness trainer gestured an upside-down “okay” – a

Tarrant’s sister and mother, who still live in the area, have been placed under police guard and even family members can’t contact them, she said.

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“The police will do their duty and keep them protected, which is what they need, and no phone contact, they’ve said you can’t contact them,” she said.

Tarrant’s uncle, Terry Fitzgerald, said they learned of his role in the massacre at two mosques in Christchurch from the television.

“First up I said, ‘No it couldn’t be’, but then I saw his photo,” he said.

“Now everybody’s just devastated... shattered, that’s the word,” added Marie Fitzgerald.

The violence has also shone a new light on gun control.

Ardern said Tarrant was a licensed gun owner who allegedly used five weapons, including two semi-automatic weapons and two shotguns, which had been modified. She said a ban on semi-automatic weapons would be considered.

Media has reported a rush to buy guns before any ban is brought in.

New Zealand has tried to tighten laws before but a strong gun lobby and culture of hunting has stymied efforts.

There are an estimated 1.5 million firearms in New Zealand, which has a population of only 5 million, but it has had low levels of gun violence.

Agence France-Presse, Reuters