Kiwi man saves 5 in New Zealand mosque terror attack

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Kiwi man saves 5 in New Zealand mosque terror attack

Man recounts horrifying details while saving people from Christchurch shooter.

Len Peneha lives next to one of the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, where terrorists opened fire, killing over 50 people on Friday.

Peneha bravely saved the lives of five people by pulling them over the fences and pushing them inside his house to safety.

It was a usual day for Peneha until he saw a man pull up in front of his home, next to the Masjid Al Noor Mosque on Deans Ave, and started shooting rampantly. Recounting the horrifying ordeal, Peneha told Newshub that he was watching from the second floor of his house when he saw a man pulled out something from the boot and walked towards the mosque.

"People started jumping over our fences and my daughter was just screaming 'save them, save them', just yelling out the window, and I just bolted downstairs and started pulling these people over the fence and pushing them into my apartment," Peneha said. He added, "There was just one guy who had his fingers on the edge of the fence, I couldn't pull him over, it was like dead weight, I couldn't get high enough to get enough leverage, I had to leave him there and I hope he's okay."

After bringing five people in his apartment, Peneha said the shooting continued for ten minutes with the gunman running out and back inside the mosque. "One guy was calling out for his brother, he wanted to go back and check on his brother, but I kept him back because he would have got shot as well," Peneha said.

Finally, the shooting stopped and Peneha saw the terrorist drive over a woman. "As he drove off, I saw a leg pop up and I just bolted down the driveway because I knew he ran over someone. I got there, and the poor young lady she had this hole in her head and her back was broken in two. Her eyes were open and she was dead," Peneha recounted.

However, he gathered himself when the first responders arrived and helped them get injured to hospitals. "I ran into the mosque and I got as far as the front door and there were three men in a pool of blood in front and I wanted to go inside and help, but I just couldn't get past that point," he added.

Peneha's home has been cordoned after the attack and he has since been living at a friends house. "Really, I'm no hero, I was there, that's all, and I tried to help, I just wish I could have helped more," he said.