Christchurch massacre: Inquiry finds failures ahead of attack

An inquiry into the Christchurch massacre has found a series of failures ahead of the 2019 attack, but concluded the tragedy was unpreventable.

The inquiry was launched after white supremacist Brenton Tarrant killed 51 people at two mosques in March 2019.

It found he had been able to accumulate a massive trove of weapons, with authorities failing to enforce proper checks on firearms licences.

It further found officials were overly focussed on Islamist terrorism.

However, correcting these failures would not have stopped the Australian national, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole earlier this year, from carrying out the attack, it said.

The patchwork of clues discovered by police after the massacre – including his steroid abuse, a hospital admission after he’d accidentally shot himself, and visits to far-right websites – would not have proved enough to predict the attack.