Quran Shelve Miraculously Saved Taxi Driver In New Zealand Shooting

Ababora said he instinctively fell to the ground and managed to squeeze himself against a bookshelf that held the Holy Qurans that worshippers read during prayers.

Christchurch (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 18th March, 2019) A taxi driver was miraculously saved in the New Zealand shooting by a Quran shelve.

While the white supremacist had attacked the mosque in Christchurch, a taxi driver Abdul Kadir Ababora took rescue under a bookshelf that used to hold the Holy Quran.

Ababora prayed to get out alive and he did. It was no less than a miracle as he emerged from the carnage unscathed.

"It's just a miracle," he told a news agency on Sunday.

The mosque's imam had just started delivering the English translation of the Friday sermon when shooting began.

The first person he saw struck was a Palestinian taxi driver who tried to run but got shot.

Soon Brenton Tarrant was inside the prayer hall pumping round after round into the defenseless worshippers.

Ababora said he instinctively fell to the ground and managed to squeeze himself against a bookshelf that held the Holy Qurans that worshippers read during prayers. Crucially, it made his body a slightly smaller target.

"I just pretended as if I am dead," he said.

"This guy started to shoot randomly, left and right, automatic.

And then he finished the first box (magazine) and then he changed it, again automatic. Then he finished the second one, he put the third box, again start automatic in the other room again,” he recalled.

He could feel the shockwaves from the bullets pass by his body.

"I was waiting for my moment, when every second a shot comes I was saying 'This is for me. This is for me'. And I lost hope," he said.

He began to silently pray and think of his family.

The horror was far from over when the gunman departed after emptying a fourth magazine before driving across town to commit a second atrocity at the Linwood mosque.

After a few minutes of silence, people started crying as Ababora saw hell in front of him.

"There was blood everywhere," he said.

Ababora had come to New Zealand from a troubled overseas homeland hoping to find peace and prosperity. The 48-year-old taxi driver had arrived from Ethiopia in 2010 and made a life for himself in Canterbury.

Ababora said he never believed such hatred would arrive on his doorstep.

"New Zealand is not safe anymore. This is brutal." he concluded.