Two gunmen - identified by authorities as a father and son - opened fire on hundreds of people marking a Hanukkah event on Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing 15 and leaving 27 in hospital with injuries.

The father was killed in an exchange of fire with police at the scene while the son is in hospital with critical injuries.

Among the victims of the country's worst mass shooting in decades, which targeted Jewish people and is being treated as a terrorist incident, are a 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and two rabbis.

The attackers are both said to have pledged allegiance to the Islamic Sate group. Here is what we know about them.

Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke confirmed the relationship between the two gunmen without naming them.