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A London-born rabbi and a 10-year-old girl are among 16 people killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, died when two gunmen targeted a Hanukkah celebration at a park next to the beach on the first day of the Jewish festival of lights on Sunday evening.

One of the attackers, a 50-year-old man, is among the 16 people who have been confirmed dead, while the second, who has been named as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, is in a critical condition, police said.

A 10-year-old girl died in hospital following the attack, while Israel’s foreign ministry has said one of the country’s citizens is also among the dead.

Follow live: 16 people killed at event celebrating Hanukkah

Mr Schlanger was assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi, a Jewish cultural centre, according to Jewish News.

HIs cousin Rabbi Dovid Lewis, of the South Manchester Synagogue, told Sky News their great-uncle, the late Reverend Leslie Olsberg, served at as a rabbi at the Heaton Park Synagogue in the city, where two people were killed in a terror attack on October.

He said his cousin had “dedicated his life to adding light and to spreading Torah and Judaism” and in the wake of the Manchester attack sent a post on social media saying: “We will respond with light.”

“There’s a feeling of numbness but there’s also a feeling he lived,” he said.

“I’m not going to wallow in pity, I’m going to do something in his memory.”

He said his cousin “lit a light”, adding: “I’m now obliged to pick up that light and become a torch bearer…

“We have got to say darkness can only be combatted with light. It’s what he did, it’s what I will do, it’s what we ask everyone else to do as well.”

Another one of his cousins, Brighton-based Rabbi Zalman Lewis, told Jewish News: “How can a joyful rabbi who went to a beach to spread happiness and light, to make the world a better place, have his life ended in this way?

“We can only respond by doing what Eli would have wanted, what he dedicated his life to – doing more mitzvot (good deeds) and to keep spreading positive energy.”

Read more:
What we know so far about Bondi Beach shooting

Mr Schlanger was reportedly a father of five who, along with his wife Chayala, celebrated the birth of their youngest child, a boy, two months ago, and grew up in Temple Fortune, north London.

Rabbi Zalman Lewis, who described him as “vivacious, optimistic and full of energy and life”, also paid tribute to him on social media.

“Please don’t send sympathy messages,” he wrote. “My dear cousin, Rabbi Eli Schlanger was murdered in today’s terrorist attack in Sydney. He leaves behind his wife & young children, as well as my uncle & aunt & siblings.”