Christchurch mosque shootings: Bangladesh star's desperate plea - There's shooting here, please save us

A Bangladesh journalist travelling with his countries cricket side has given a harrowing glimpse of his experience following the shooting at a Christchurch mosque yesterday afternoon.

The shooting happened just minutes away from Hagley Oval, where the cancelled test was set to be held, and the Bangladesh cricket team narrowly avoided the incident, having to flee the scene.

The team had just arrived at the Al Noor Mosque for Friday prayer when a gunman opened fire, with video showing several Bangladeshi players and media escaping the scene.

Mohammad Isam, a Bangladeshi journalist for Cricinfo who was there and gave a descriptive account of the afternoon's shocking events for Espncricinfo.

Read the full account here.

1.52pm: I get a call from Tamim Iqbal, one of the senior-most cricketers in the team, as I'm leaving the Hagley Oval. He's calling me for help. "There's shooting here, please save us." I first think that he is playing a prank but he hangs up and calls again - this time, his voice starts to crack. He says that I should call the police as there's a shooting going on inside the mosque where they are about to enter.

1.53 pm: My first instinct is to start running towards the mosque. I don't even stop to think; you can call me an idiot for running towards an active terrorism scene but I knew I just had to go. Partly as a journalist, mainly as a human being.

I start running towards the main road, when a lady, also heading out in her car, asks if I need a ride. I tell her what Tamim has told me, and she tells me to hop in. My fellow Bangladeshi journalists Mazhar Uddin and Utpal Shuvro also come along.

1.56pm: We see the entry to Deans Avenue, where the mosque is located, blocked off by a police car, so we get off in front of the Parkview Hotel on the corner of Deans and Riccarton avenues. I start running towards the mosque when I spot the Bangladesh team bus. There are a few police cars around, and a couple of ambulances. Some people are standing around, wondering what had happened near that intersection.

But when I look to my right, towards the entrance of a motel, it becomes clear: There's a body on the ground, being attended to by paramedics. There's blood everywhere.

2.00pm: I see one man running towards me, crying, and holding his arm. There's definitely blood on his shirt. People nearby are helping another man to escape, shouting instructions at him. I keep walking fast towards the bus when I see a line of Bangladesh players running away from the bus. I cross the road, and as I get close, Ebadot Hossain grabs me by the arm and tells me to run with them. At this point I still have no idea what actually has happened; I don't even know if the team was the target of the attack.

2.02pm: The players are now on the side of Hagley Park, and someone asks for directions. The ground is to their right, about a 15-minute walk. The players enter the park and start to run, when someone tells them they should walk quickly. Not run.

2.04pm: I am walking with Tamim and then I see the players spreading out, too wide apart. I ask Sohel to get them all together. It is impossible but some of them slow down to walk together.

It's no more than a kilometre away but it is the longest few minutes of my life. The players are talking about what they've seen - the blood, the bodies. One senior player holds on to me and breaks down. There is very little I can say to him.

2.08pm: We reach the Hagley Oval and just run inside. Everyone is taken inside the players' dressing room where they get to sit finally. They are visibly shaken.

5.00pm: The tour is called off by New Zealand Cricket, after consultation with the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the ICC.