The Philippines Bureau of Immigration said on Tuesday (December 16, 2025) that the two alleged gunmen behind the mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach travelled to the Philippines on November 1 aboard Philippine Airlines Flight PR212 from Sydney to Manila and onward to Davao.

A spokesperson for the bureau said that Sajid Akram, 50, an Indian national and Australian resident, travelled on an Indian passport, while his son Naveed Akram, 24, an Australian national, used an Australian passport, arrived together on the same flight.

They departed on November 28 on the same flight numbered, PR212, from Davao via Manila back to Sydney, weeks before the assault that killed 15 people.

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The attack on Sunday (December 14, 2025) was Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years, and is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.

It was not immediately clear what activities they undertook in the Philippines or whether they travelled elsewhere after landing in Davao, a city in Mindanao, a region where terrorist groups, including Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)-linked factions, have operated.

In 2017, Islamic State-inspired militants seized parts of the southern city of Marawi and held it through five months of ground offensives and air strikes by the Military.

The siege of Marawi, the country’s biggest battle since World War Two, displaced some 3,50,000 residents and more than 1,100 people were killed which are mostly militants.

While the Armed Forces of the Philippines is validating the reports, its spokesperson said in a statement the Military is closely coordinating with relevant agencies on matters involving the movements of foreign nationals and potential terrorist ties.

An mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australia’s Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said on Tuesday (December 16, 2025).

The suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man was shot dead while his son was being treated at a hospital on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a news conference on Tuesday that officials were making their first comments about the suspects’ ideologies because of evidence they had obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”

There are 25 people still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre, 10 of them in critical condition.

Australia’s intelligence service investigated one of the alleged gunmen in the Bondi Beach shooting for links to the Islamic State group six years ago, the national broadcaster said on Monday (December 15, 2025).

A 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son are accused of opening fire on Sunday (December 14, 2025) on a Hanukkah festival at the famed Sydney beach, killing 15 people and wounding more than 40 others.

Australian media named the gunmen as Sajid Akram, who was killed in a shootout with police, and his son Naveed Akram, who was in hospital in a critical condition under police guard.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation looked into the son in 2019, according to public broadcaster ABC, which cited an unnamed senior official in the joint counter-terrorism operation investigating the Bondi Beach attack.

It said Naveed Akram was believed to be closely connected to an Islamic State member who was arrested in July 2019 and convicted of preparing a terrorist act in Australia. The broadcaster said counter-terrorism detectives believed the two Bondi Beach gunmen had pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

Senior officials reportedly told that the ABC two IS flags were found in the gunmen’s car at the beach.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess told reporters on Sunday (December 14, 2025) that one of the gunmen was “known to us but not in an immediate threat perspective”.

“So, obviously we need to look into what happened here,” he added.

New South Wales police said they could not confirm the ABC report. ASIO said it “does not comment on individuals or ongoing investigations”.