Australias Bondi Hero handed $1.65 million collected from fundraising

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Influencer Zachery Dereniowski gives a check of 2,533,585 dollars to Ahmed al Ahmed, the bystander who is hailed as the \Bondi hero\ after he charged at one of the gunmen and seized his rifle during the deadly shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia in this screengrab taken from social media video released December 19, 2025. @mdmotivator via TikTok/via REUTERS

SYDNEY, Dec 19 - A man credited with saving lives for wrestling a gun from one of the alleged attackers during a mass shooting at Australias Bondi Beach received a cheque for more than A$2.5 million ($1.65 million) on Friday, after ‍tens ​of thousands of people contributed to a donation website.

Ahmed al Ahmed ‍hid behind parked cars before charging at one of the gunmen from behind, seizing his weapon and knocking him to the ground. ​Ahmed suffered ​gunshot wounds after apparently being fired on by a second perpetrator and remains in hospital after undergoing surgery.

Ahmed, a Muslim father-of-two, was presented with an oversized cheque at his St. George hospital bed by Zachery ‍Dereniowski, a social media influencer and co-organiser of the GoFundMe page, videos posted online showed.

More than 43,000 people worldwide ​contributed to the fundraising, including billionaire hedge fund ⁠manager Bill Ackman who gave A$99,999 and shared the fundraiser on his X account. Australias prime minister and the