Forty nine people were brutally gunned down at two mosques in New Zealand earlier today, in attacks that have shocked the world.

Worshippers were fired upon indiscriminately by at least two gunmen in places of worship in Christchurch.

One of the gunmen is believed to be Brenton Tarrant, who posted sickening footage of the attacks on social media as he carried them out.

But what do we know about the 28-year-old Australian, who described himself as in a so-called manifesto as an "ordinary white man who decided to take a stand"?

Click here for the latest updates on this horrific attack

Who is Brenton Tarrant?

Tarrant had worked as personal trainer in Australia, according to ABC news.

The white supremacist describes himself in the manifesto as ‘a ordinary White man’.

It goes on:  "Born in Australia to a working class, low income family.

"My parents are of Scottish, Irish and English stock. I had a regular childhood, without any great issues.

"I had little interest in education during my schooling, barely achieving a passing grade."

"I am just a regular White man, from a regular family," he continues. "Who decided to take a stand to ensure a future for my people."

Where did he get his twisted and hate-filled beliefs?

In ‘The Great Replacement’ manifesto he posted online before the killing, Tarrant  says he wants to incite violence and directly intimidate immigrants to leave Western countries.

He describes himself as "a private and mostly introverted person" and admits he is racist, adding he is an "Eco-fascist by nature".

The manifesto calls out cases of rape and sexual assault against women in the west by “the invading forces”, highlighting the UK’s Rotherham grooming gangs – ‘For Rotherham’ was written on one ammo clip.

The so-called ‘manifesto’ contains misdirection and apparent trolling

During the document he poses, then answers, his own questions.

In one section he asks: "Were you taught violence and extremism by video games, music, literature cinema?"

He responds: "Yes, Spyro the dragon 3 taught me ethno-nationalism. Fortnite trained me to be a killer and to floss on the corpses of my enemies.

"No."

Sypro is an old Playstation game and Fortnite is one of the most popular contemporary video games.

The entire manifesto is dotted with references to memes and internet in-jokes.

Tarrant is thought to have bragged about his plans to conduct the attack minutes before it was launched on the messageboard 4chan which has sections devoted to the far right.

One user hailed him as “the next Breivik”.

Was Tarrant inspired by previous far-right mass killer Anders Breivik?

Given that the manifesto contains obvious attempts at trolling and misleading, it’s hard to know for certain. But their ideologies clearly align somewhat.

He claims to have been in contact with Breivik, and that the Norwegian mass-shooter’s manifesto was his “true inspiration”.

Breivik’s manifesto has provided inspiration to a number of far-right killers and would-be killers, most recently Coast Guard Lieutenant Christopher Hasson, writes investigative website Bellingcat.

Why did he attack mosques in New Zealand?

He said New Zealand was not the original choice for an attack, saying he only came to the country temporarily to plan and train.

On his planning for the attack, he wrote: "I begun planning an attack roughly two years in advance and an attack at the location in Christchurch three months in advance."

Why did he mention YouTuber PewdiePie?

PewdiePie, or Felix Kjellberg as he is legally known, is a 29-year-old YouTuber with 89 million subscribers.

The streamed video of his massacre begins with him telling viewers to “Subscribe to PewDiePie”, something UKIP has also encouraged on Twitter in recent days.

This is a reference to ‘The Great Subscriber War’ an Internet meme which started last year based around a subscriber battle between PewdiePie and T-Series, a channel which produces Bollywood music videos.

Responding, PewDiePie wrote: "Just heard news of the devastating reports from New Zealand Christchurch.

"I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person.

"My heart and thoughts go out to the victims, families and everyone affected by this tragedy."

Tarrant wrote about Brexit and Donald Trump in his ‘manifesto’

Answering whether he supports Brexit, he wrote: "Yes, though not for an official policy made.

"The truth is that eventually people must face the fact that it wasn’t a damn thing to do with the economy.

"That it was the British people firing back at mass immigration, cultural displacement and globalism, and that’s a great and wonderful thing."

On whether or not he is a supporter of US president Donald Trump, he wrote: "As a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose? Sure. As a policy maker and leader? Dear god no."

Sir Oswald Mosley is the person from history that he says he would most associate himself with.

An archive of a Facebook page thought to belong to Tarrant contained dozens of posts in the last week about multiculturalism in Europe, with several referring directly to the UK.

Among them were YouTube recordings of speeches by Sir Oswald.

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