The Telangana Police on Tuesday said that one of the gunmen behind the mass shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach had links to Hyderabad.

The police said 50-year-old Sajid Akram had finished his Bachelor of Commerce degree in the city before migrating to Australia in November 1998 after marrying a woman of European origin.

“Telangana Police has no adverse record against Sajid Akram during his stay in India prior to his departure in 1998,” a press release by the police said.

The factors that allegedly led to the radicalisation of Sajid Akram and his son Naveed did not seem to have any connection with India, the police said. Naveed Akram was born in Australi and is an Australian citizen, they added.

Earlier in the day, the Philippines Bureau of Immigration had said the two gunmen had travelled to the country on November 1, with the father entering on an Indian passport and the son on an Australian passport, Reuters reported.

Immigration officials said that Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram arrived together on November 1 from Sydney to Manila and onward to Davao, in the southern Mindanao region.

They returned to Sydney on November 28, weeks before the attack, Reuters quoted the Filipino authorities as saying.

On Tuesday, 15 people were killed when a shooting targeting a Jewish Hanukkah celebration took place at Bondi Beach. Forty-two people were hospitalised, including five in critical condition. Among them were two police officers who were wounded in a shootout with the gunmen.

Sajid Akram was shot dead by police at the scene, while Naveed Akram was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The New South Wales police said the younger man regained consciousness on Tuesday afternoon after he had been in a coma, The Guardian reported.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the attack as an “act of antisemitism... [and] terrorism”, the BBC reported.

The Filipino authorities said it was not immediately clear what activities the father-son duo undertook while in the Philippines or whether they travelled elsewhere after arriving in Davao, a city in Mindanao where Islamist militant groups, including ISIS-linked factions, have previously operated, Reuters reported.

“Early indications point to a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State, allegedly committed by a father and son,” Al Jazeera quoted Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett as saying.

“These are the alleged actions of those who have aligned themselves with a terrorist organisation, not a religion,” Barret added.

The police also said they recovered two homemade ISIS flags from a vehicle used by the gunmen.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said they were validating the reports and coordinating closely with other agencies regarding the movements of foreign nationals and any potential terrorist links, Reuters reported.