A woman can't keep count of how many friends she has lost in the Christchurch mosque shootings as police only just begin releasing the bodies of victims.
1 NEWS met 25-year-old Yasmin Ali on the night of the terror attack on Friday before she realised two little children she was close to were shot to death.
"They didn't think this was going to happen to them. Their life was taken away from them in the blink of an eye, and same with the families who were expecting them home," Ms Ali said today.
Now the number of friends she has lost is seven, and climbing.
Police have begun releasing the bodies of the 50 victims one by one.
"It's incredibly hard for the family that are all involved not being able to see the body, not being able to wash the body pray, give the body and then the closure that they need to be able to move on," Ms Ali said.
Ninety staff are carrying out disaster victim identification to hasten the process before the victims can be buried at Memorial Park Cemetery.
Today there was high security around the graves that are being prepared.
Yasmin Ali says she is now scared to wear her headscarf on the street.
Among the 50 dead are 14-year-old Sayyad Milne.
"He was always curious, he was really smart, really sporty. He always won all the athletic competitions and that sort of thing. He was just really kind and caring. He never hurt anyone, he was a great guy," said Kayden Leftly, Sayyad's friend.
Kayden went to primary school with Sayyad.
"In the morning the news was confirmed. And I was devastated, it was awful," Kayden said.
Ms Ali said her uncle was shot in the back through one of the dead bodies but the shot "missed his vertebrae and missed his heart, so he is incredibly lucky".
The definition of lucky has changed in Christchurch, a city that Ms Ali says she and her family don't feel safe in right now.
"To the Muslim community, I love you so much, every single one of you. And we will stick through this together and we will get through this together and we just have to stay strong," she said.
1 NEWS reporter Lisa Davies says at this stage plans are underway for a memorial burial for all 50 victims. But that could happen as late as Thursday or Friday, despite the Prime Minister's hopes yesterday that all of the victims' families would have their loved ones back by Wednesday. The identification process is slow and gruelling, Davies reported.
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