By Daniel Piotrowski In Christchurch For Daily Mail Australia
Published: 00:08 GMT, 20 March 2019 | Updated: 00:13 GMT, 20 March 2019
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Two victims of the Christchurch mosque massacre - a Syrian father and son - have been laid to rest at the first funeral, with mourners each using their hands to throw three handfuls of soil into the graves.
Refugees Khaled Mustafa, 44, and his high school student son Hamza, 15, were killed in the carnage at the Al Noor mosque during the gunman’s alleged reign of terror, which claimed 50 lives last Friday.
The bodies arrived in a procession of more than a dozen cars about 12.30pm. There was complete silence on the grounds. The janaza, or funeral prayers, began shortly thereafter, with the words 'allahu akbar' (god is the greatest) hanging in the air.
The victims were then carried to the plots for burial, with the men ordered to line up in order to throw soil into the graves. The women in attendance watched on from afar, as is Islamic custom.
The talented farrier father and his son, a student at Cashmere High School, were buried next to one another at plots 87 and 88.
The coffin of the first victim from the Christchurch terrorist attack arrives for the burial ceremony at Memorial Park Cemetery
Mourners console each other before the first funerals for the victims of last Friday's terrorist attack in Christchurch
The burials, more than five days after the massacre, follow mounting frustration from families that their relatives’ remains could not be released quickly, due to the police investigation.
Two people will be buried in the next few hours.
Three to four
