Stunned and shattered: New Zealand mosque attacker's family reacts

Sydney : The family of an Australian man, who allegedly carried out deadly twin attacks on two mosques in New Zealand, said that they are stunned and 'shattered' to learn about his involvement.

"We're all gob-smacked, we don't know what to think," Brenton Tarrant's grandmother, Marie Fitzgerald, told Australia's Channel Nine network.

"It's just so much... to take in that somebody in our family could do anything like this," Fitzgerald said from her home in New South Wales state.

According to the family, they noticed no sign of personality change in Tarrant where he could be so influenced with the white people that his hatred may turn into violence.

"It's only since he travelled overseas I think that the boy has changed, completely," she said, adding that as a teen, Tarrant was interested mainly in computer games.

He began travelling after his father died several years ago, and has been living in recent years in the southern New Zealand city of Dunedin. "He was just his normal self," she said.

Tarrant's sister and mother, who still live in the area, have been placed under police guard and even family members can't contact them, she said.

"The police will do their duty and keep them protected, which is what they need, and no phone contact, they've said you can't contact them," she said.

Tarrant is accused of carrying out deadly shooting at two mosques in New Zealand and also live streaming the whole proceeding on the social media for over 17 minutes. Over 50 people have been killed in the deadly attack.