An eerie hush as police started to block off the area around Masjid Al Noor Mosque was the first sign that something was wrong yesterday, Perth vet Milad Keihani said.

But he said he and his family had no idea how serious it was until they were in their car and heard breaking news on the radio of the shootings.

“By that stage the ambulances and police sirens were going off everywhere... and everyone was running to their cars and getting out of the streets because police were telling everyone to get indoors,” he said.

Dr Keihani and his family had been at Hagley Park - adjacent to the mosque - enjoying the last day of a New Zealand holiday.

They returned to their car about 10 minutes after the murderous rampage.

“We didn’t hear any gunshots luckily,” he said.

“The police cars initially came quite quietly and then... there were a lot of sirens and a lot more police cars coming to the area and that’s when they stated to get more vocal and usher people away.

“We were leaving as the ambulances were all pulling up so we didn’t see any bodies or any of the injured being brought out.

“Now we’re indoors, we’re just glued to the TV to see if there’s any updates.”

He said it was terrible to learn that one of the self-professed gunman was Australian.