WELLINGTON, 08 December, 2020, (TON): New Zealand has released an almost 800-page report into the March 2019 Christchurch attack, killing of 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques and concluded that authorities could not have been alerted of an imminent attack.

“No single aspect of it could have alerted public sector agencies to an impending terrorist attack,” the Royal Commission report said on Tuesday.

The report, however, took issue with Christchurch authorities for deploying “an inappropriate concentration of resources” in probing religious violence in the country, distracting them from other possible threats such as that of white supremacists, the commission also concluded.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry was formed to look into the response of the authorities and to determine whether the attack could have been prevented.

“The commission made no findings that these issues would have stopped the attack. But these were both failings and for that I apologise,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said after the report was released.

“Ultimately, this roughly 800-page report can be distilled into one simple premise: Muslim New Zealanders should be safe. Anyone who cause New Zealand harm regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, should be safe,” PM Ardern added.

“New Zealanders deserve a system that does its best to keep you safe, and that’s what we are committed to building” she said.

Brenton Tarrant carried out the attack in 2019 and live-streamed the killing on social media.

Tarrant was sentenced to life in prison without parole in August for the attack, which left dozens injured. He had expressed white supremacist and anti-Muslim views before the killings.

New Zealand’s prime minister receives worldwide praise for her response to the mosque shootings and for swiftly banning the sale of the high-capacity semi-automatic weapons Tarrant used. She also launched a global movement against online extremism.

However, authorities were criticised for ignoring repeated warnings from the Muslim community that hate crimes against them were escalating.