Three days after the mosque shooting, faces are etched with exhaustion following a weekend of sleepless nights and grief

It was a Monday morning unlike any other the city had seen before. Residents of Christchurch, with its bucolic hills and expansive gardens, awoke to face the week after a weekend of fear.

As workers trudged to their offices under a grey sky, faces were etched with exhaustion following sleepless nights, grief and disbelief.

New Zealand mosque attack: counter-terrorism police raid homes in Australia – live Read more

Three days after a gunman killed 50 people during Friday prayers at two mosques in the city, police helicopters continued to circle above the city; outside schools there were armed police.

As well as officers on foot, in cars and in the air, trauma teams were sent en masse to local schools as children struggled to understand the deaths of their friends and the sadness that filled the city. On Friday, schools were in lockdown for hours, as police worked to ascertain if they were chasing one gunmen or many.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Members of the Muslim community attend a blessing outside the Linwood mosque. Photograph: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

“There’s a sense of weariness. It’s been a very long, hard weekend, and I think people will be a little bit washed out and will be pleased to be back in their places of work and study, and congregate with their friends and colleagues,” Raf Manji, a Christchurch City councillor and a Muslim, told Nine to Noon.

“People coming together will be a good thing for the city … this is an attack on the whole community, we talk about the Muslim community but they’re just part of us, they’re part of our normal everyday life. The way the public has come out here shows the community is rejecting what has happened to it.”

On Monday, schoolchildren performed a haka during a vigil near the Al Noor mosque. One of the students who coordinated the the vigil told Stuff.co.nz it was a “student-led initiative to spread love and peace”.

Play Video 1:50 Students perform haka to pay tribute to classmates killed in Christchurch - video

Police commissioner Mike Bush has urged locals to return to their normal lives, to remain “vigilant” but to reject fear and reclaim the streets of their city.

But it was hard for residents to embrace routine and normality when a fleet of diggers were fanning out around the city, striking sodden autumn earth to prepare 50 graves for the burials of the victims that would begin on Monday. Experts in Islamic burial rights also converged on the city.

A steady stream of mourners brought wreaths to lay at Linwood mosque, targeted on Friday by the gunman, where a blessing was held on Monday morning.

New Zealand attack: victims of the mosque massacre Read more

Then there were the hundreds upon hundreds of flowers lying on the grass on Dean’s Avenue, near Al Noor mosque. In a cafe a Muslim woman sat alone eating a plate of eggs, steeling herself against a stream of well-meaning strangers approaching her table.

“I’m glad you feel safe to sit out here,” said one woman. “You should feel safe in our city.”

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day. In New Zealand, the crisis support service Lifeline can be reached on 0800 543 354. In Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Irish Republic, contact Samaritans on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.