'No plausible way' Christchurch mosque shooter could have been detected

New Zealand police and intelligence services made a string of errors ahead of last year's Christchurch mosques attack, but may not have been able to prevent the massacre of 51 Muslim worshippers, an inquiry found on Dec. 8.

The royal commission - the most powerful judicial probe available under New Zealand law - called for sweeping changes to counter-terrorism operations in response to the white supremacist attack by lone-wolf gunman Brenton Tarrant.

The 800-page report said spy agencies had placed an "inappropriate" focus on Islamist extremism before the attack without giving due weight to the threat of right-wing terrorism.

It also said police incorrectly approved the firearms licence that allowed Australian national Tarrant to amass the arsenal of high-powered weapons used in New Zealand's worst modern-day massacre.

But it stopped short of saying authorities could have prevented the deaths, finding the "fragmentary" information available about Tarrant before the killings was not enough to mark him as a threat.

"There was no plausible way he could have been detected except by chance," said the report on the March 2019 attack, in which Tarrant targeted men, women and children who had gathered for Friday prayers in the South Island city.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern welcomed the review and vowed to adopt all 44 recommendations, saying the counter-terrorism focus on Muslims was being reformed and her government had already addressed lax firearms laws.

"The commission made no findings that these issues would have stopped the attack, but these were both failings nonetheless and for that I apologise," she said.

Tarrant, 30, became the first person in New Zealand to be jailed for life without the prospect of...