Massey University Centre for Defence and Security Studies...

Massey University Centre for Defence and Security Studies counter-terrorism Dr John Battersby said a group of experts had been warning for some time that a terrorism event was likely to happen in New Zealand.

"He appears to be a right-wing extremist, he's quite clearly targeted a mosque, he's done an awful amount of damage and he's killed an awful amount of people.

"The internet is causing this, the echo chambers of the internet where people with extremist views can get together and listen to each other and encourage each other."