Australian police search homes linked to New Zealand mosque gunman

Australian counter-terrorism police searched two homes early Monday linked to the gunman accused of killing 50 people at two New Zealand mosques last week, police said.

The homes were in the New South Wales towns of Sandy Beach and Lawrence, both near the town of Grafton where Brenton Tarrant, the alleged shooter, grew up.

"The primary aim of the activity is to formally obtain material that may assist New Zealand police in their ongoing investigation," a police statement said.

They said Tarrant's family "continues to assist police with their inquiries" but that there is no information to suggest "a current or impending threat" to the community.

Tarrant, a self-avowed white supremacist, spent his youth in Grafton but has travelled abroad extensively over the past decade and had lived in recent years in Dunedin, New Zealand.

He has been charged with murder in the country after the mass shooting on Friday which left 50 dead and 50 injured in two mosques in the city of Christchurch ...