A cardiologist has described the scenes he witnessed after emerging from a cafe where he had taken shelter when the shooting began at Bondi Beach. 

Associate Professor James Otton was one of the first doctors called upon to treat dozens of gunshot wound victims on the lawn of the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club in Sydney.

Minutes earlier, he had been standing outside the club when he heard what he thought were fireworks. Then he saw people running, and, with his wife, took shelter in the cafe.

“I came out after the guns had stopped and sirens were heard, and that’s when I realised that there were a lot of casualties,” said Professor Otton, who works at St Vincent’s Private Hospital.