Jessica Rozen ran, searching desperately for her three-year-old son as the shots rang out at Bondi beach on Sunday.

Rozen had attended the Chanukah by the Sea event with her family when the terrorist attack began that evening, bringing a terrifying end to the day’s Jewish celebration of light.

Her husband was running with their toddler when she noticed a little girl screaming. She lay on top of her until the shooting stopped and the girl’s dad came.

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Photos shared with Guardian Australia show Rozen, with blood in her hair, lying on top of a little girl in a pink shirt with colourful face paint.

In another video, one of the alleged shooters aims from a footbridge at a group of older men, women and children hiding among white plastic chairs, as they desperately try to huddle to the ground.

The little girl was physically unharmed, she said, while Rozen was left with small cuts and grazes. She saw a woman nearby who had been in the head.

Her three-year-old was in the playground with his grandmother, outside the main line of fire.

“She lay on top of him,” Rozen said. “A group of men gathered all the kids and women from the playground and walked them up to the surf club. I don’t know who they are, but I am grateful beyond measure.

“The only thing to say is we’re a community of peace, and we were just eating donuts with our kids and celebrating light. No one deserves this.”

Rozen’s actions are among the stories of heroism by ordinary people that have emerged from Sunday’s terror attack at Bondi beach, where two alleged gunmen killed at least 15 people. A further 27 people were in hospital with injuries on Monday.

In a widely shared video, a bystander – since identified as Ahmed al Ahmed – tackles one of the shooters and wrestles the weapon from his grip.

Anthony Albanese on Monday afternoon praised Ahmed’s bravery, saying he grabbed the gun at “great risk to himself and suffered serious injury as a result of that, and is currently going through operations today in hospital”.

The prime minister earlier said first responders “rushing towards danger” had shown “the best of the Australian character”.

“That’s who we are, people who stand up for our values,” he said.

The NSW ambulance commissioner, Dominic Morgan, lauded the “amazing heroism” of first responders, noting some paramedics were from the Jewish community and “continued their duties diligently and professionally”.

On Monday, Yossi Friedman, a local rabbi, visited Bondi beach to pray and mourn with other members of the Jewish community.

Wearing a kippa and tefillin, Friedman stood by the police cordon near the Bondi beach park where gunmen opened fire.

Friedman paid tribute to his friend, Eli Schlanger. Schlanger, a London-born rabbi, was the first victim of Sunday’s shooting to be named.

“He was just full of light,” Friedman said. “He was just so positive and so obsessed with life and just bringing joy to everyone.

“We don’t know what to do with ourselves today. He has five children. His youngest is only a few months old.”

Friedman said his own nieces and nephews were at the festival and ran across the street and sheltered in a stranger’s apartment for six hours.

“They had to leave, they had to run for their lives and escape across the road,” he said.

On the way to the beach this morning, he stopped to find his daughter’s shoes at nearby Dover Heights, which she had left behind as she fled last night.

Some of the injured and dead were Friedman’s good friends, and he was “still waiting” to learn if he knew more of the injured.

“People are coming over. Jewish people, regular Australians, coming over and just giving each other hugs and crying on each other’s shoulders,” he said.

“We’re just grieving and feeling those emotions. But like we’ve always done, we will gather together, and we will come back stronger.”

With additional reporting by Adeshola Ore

In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and Griefline on 1300 845 745. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org