As the first anniversary of the atrocity that shocked New Zealand looms, victims struggle with enduring trauma – but also carry a sense of hope

At first, Hisham al Zarzour couldn’t remember what had happened. Later, he tried to forget. Lying beneath the bodies of other worshippers at Al Noor mosque in Christchurch last March as a gunman fired again and again, he prayed that Allah would send him back to Syria to die.

There, war had been a way of life. Chaos became normal. But the violence in peaceful New Zealand came just seven months after the sleepy, leafy city had become his home. That something so barbaric could happen in his place of refuge was unbearable.

Police admit that at least one person had been able to access other firearm owners’ personal information online

New Zealand’s high profile gun buyback scheme, enacted by the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, after the Christchurch mosque attacks, has been thrown into disarray after police admitted that at least one person had been able to access other firearm owners’ personal information online.

The error became public on Monday when a gun lobby group said it had spoken to 15 people who were able to access information on a website where firearms owners registered weapons to be relinquished. It included their names, addresses, dates of birth, firearms licence numbers and bank account details, the group said.

Trial of man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques set to begin in June next year

The man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March has withdrawn an application to have the trial moved away from Christchurch, the city where the attacks occurred.

The decision was announced at the high court in Christchurch, where the accused man, Australian Brenton Tarrant, appeared via a video link from a high-security prison in Auckland.