YEREVAN, MARCH 25, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern has announced a royal commission into the events leading up to the deadly Christchurch terror attack that killed 50 people earlier this month, ABC Australia reported.

Speaking 10 days after two mosques were targeted in a mass shooting, PM Ardern said the commission would look at "the events leading up to the attack, rather than the response".

"While New Zealanders and Muslim communities around the world are both grieving and showing compassion for one another, they are also quite rightly asking questions on how this terror attack was able to happen here," she said.

"This includes questions around the accessibility of semi-automatic weapons, the role social media has played generally and the focus of the intelligence and security services.

"In short, the inquiry will look at what could have or should have been done to prevent the attack”, ABC quoted the New Zealand PM as saying.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan