For 17 minutes, the assassin in New Zealand's Christchurch streamed his deadly shots at defenseless civilians. Although the authorities asked immediately after the attack, not to spread the recordings. But in addition to some media companies, a large number of private users did not comply with this requirement.

Facebook, whose system was used by the offender Brenton Tarrant, is now trying to remove as many copies as possible from its offer.

"In the first 24 hours, we've deleted 1.5 million videos of the attack worldwide, of which more than 1.2 million are already in the upload," said Facebook on Saturday in a tweet.

In the attacks on two mosques on Friday, Tarrant had killed a total of 50 people. The authorities had last reported the death toll at 49, but on Sunday they discovered another body in one of the buildings.

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The number of injured was also revised upwards: There were 50 injured, of whom 36 were still in the hospital, the police said. Two of them are in critical condition.

The investigators meanwhile assume that the Australian Tarrant did his act alone. Two arrested men on Friday apparently had no direct connection to the attack and the assassin. They were arrested at a police cordon and had firearms with them, so a police spokesman.

Talk about livestreams continues

Facebook also stated that it would also delete edited versions of the video without clear acts of violence. This is done out of respect for those affected and because of concerns of the authorities.

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Terrorist attacks on Muslims: New Zealand united in grief

Tarrant used in the recordings of his bloody act a streaming app that was actually designed for extreme sports. The process has triggered a new debate on the responsibility and task of providers of corresponding live offers on the Internet (read a comment here). New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also announced her plans to discuss live streams with Facebook.