Speaking from hospital yesterday, Mustafa Boztas said he cried for the first time after surviving the attacks when he met the mother of a young boy he valiantly tried to save.
The 21-year-old said he was listening to the imam at the Al Noor mosque on the afternoon of the attacks when the shooting began.
He had recently moved to Christchurch for his engineering studies and was unfamiliar with the mosque.
"I'm new to Christchurch, and in the mosque I don't know where the exits are."
He ran left in a desperate attempt to escape but was shot in the upper leg before he and others could smash the windows to escape.
"We couldn't break the windows and I got stuck on the left side and I was shot."
About three minutes after he was shot, he looked up and realised the gunman was gone.
Running for his life with a bullet in his leg, he stopped when he found a young boy lying on the ground.
"I couldn't just leave him there."
He had a gunshot wound on the left side of his chest, Mr Boztas said.
He attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation but it was to no avail, and he closed the child's eyes out of respect.
He began running again but his leg gave out and he waited for an ambulance.
The following day, he underwent surgery. Mr Boztas is now walking with the aid of a frame and said he would be back on his feet unassisted this year, as the bullet missed his femur.
He said he did not cry until the mother of the young boy he tried to save visited his ward.
"She came into my ward. I had no idea who it was, and she asked me `Were you the last one to see my son?'
"I couldn't say anything, I just broke down ... and she dropped on her knees and cried."
Mr Boztas' parents are with him in Christchurch. He also made a special mention of the support of the Otago Polytechnic, where he had studied previously.
A fundraising page to support Mr Boztas' recovery has been set up here.
