New Zealand mosque terror attack: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern orders royal commission into Christchurch shootings

Wellington: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday ordered an independent judicial inquiry into whether police and intelligence services could have prevented the Christchurch mosque attacks on 15 March.

Ardern said a royal commission – the most powerful judicial probe available under New Zealand law – was needed to find out how a single gunman was able to kill 50 people in an attack that shocked the world.

"It is important that no stone is left unturned to get to how this act of terrorism occurred and how we could have stopped it," she told reporters.