Mosque shooting: Survivor tells how his dad took a bullet for him

A survivor of Christchurch's horrific mosque massacre has described how his dad took a bullet for him during the attack.

"A [bullet] went past my face and it burned my face. It didn't even touch me, but it burned, so I could only feel for the people that got shot by them," Ali Adeeba told BBC News.

After waking up just seconds later, he discovered his father had taken the bullet for him.

His father is now fighting for his life in intensive care after undergoing his second surgery. He is in an induced coma.

His voice trembling while he spoke, Adeeba said he was sorry to say he couldn't do anything in those moments but try to stay safe.

"I was tensing all my muscles but with every shot, my body never shook that hard," Adeeba told BBC News.

He said when he first heard the gunshots he thought they were fireworks.

"Then I see people running and he pulled, I think, a semi-automatic and started shooting.

"My first thought was to run forward, because he was coming from the back and I was looking for my dad," Adeeba said.

He said he stumbled across his dad and struggled to remember going through the next door.

"I'm up under the right pile in the mosque and I missed the full first clip. I woke up in a second, and all I hear is shooting," Adeeba said.

He said the gunshots kept going and just when he thought it was safe to call 111 the gunman came back.

"So I hang up, and he carried shooting on the pile on top of me. And I just couldn't do anything except just lay there. He went four more times and after that he was all gone."

Adeeba told BBC News he was one of the few who walked out of that mosque without a bullet wound.