The ceremony took place before a crowd gathered outside the city's Baitul Huda Mosque

Sydney:

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was hailed as a hero. Pakistani security officer Faraz Tahir, who was killed in Sydney while trying to stop a mass stabbing attack, was pronounced guilty at a funeral attended by hundreds on Friday.

Tahir, who would have turned 31 on Wednesday, was on his first day of work when he became one of six people killed this month in the stabbing attack at a busy Bondi beach shopping centre.

“He ran into danger, to protect people he had never met, and without a doubt he helped save lives that day,” Albanese said. “Without a doubt, Faraz Tahir died a hero.”

The ceremony took place in front of a crowd that gathered outside the city's Baitul Huda Mosque, under a banner reading “Love for all – hatred for none.”

Tahir arrived in Australia as a refugee from Pakistan, according to Australia's Ahmadiyya Muslim community, to which he belonged.

Fellow security guard Muhammad Taha, injured as he tried to stop the attacker, was present in a wheelchair after being released from hospital before the ceremony. He was the last to speak to Tahir as they ran to the scene of the attack.

“We were trying to rescue people at the time and his last words were 'Let's find out what's going on', so we rushed to that area,” he said in a commentary carried by The Guardian newspaper.

Tahir's brother, Mudasar Bashir, told reporters that the two had spoken the night before and promised to call the next day. They never spoke again.

“Even until now we couldn't believe he's gone,” he said at the funeral. “We are very proud of him because… Islam, our religion, says that if you save even one person, you save all of humanity.”

Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old man with mental health problems, killed five women and Tahir at the mall on April 13 before being shot dead by police.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)