Brydie Milne, the half-sister of 14-year-old victim Sayyad Milne, has described him as "a typical Kiwi boy who loved playing football", Claire Drake reports.

"He was just so kind and quietly gorgeous," Ms Milne, a mum of four living in the North Island, told The Telegraph. Sayyad was the youngest in the family.

He was at Al Noor mosque, on Deans Ave, with his mother when the massacre happened. Sayyad's mum was in a different part of the building and managed to escape the gunman; friends of the family reported seeing Sayyad "lying on the floor of the mosque, bleeding from his lower body," said Milne.

"It was a horrible situation. Imagine what his mum went through - leaving the mosque without him, not knowing if he was alive."

The family reported Sayyad missing and waited at home for updates. Milne said they didn't hold much hope for the teen's survival.

"Understandably they had to follow procedures. The bodies had to stay there over night. He wouldn’t have had any ID on him, like many people there," she said.

"His mum, his poor mum, and his brother and sister have just had a very long night and day waiting."

On Saturday afternoon Sayyad's parents were summoned to identify his body, said Ms Milne.

"I’m devastated for my family, that they won’t get their baby boy back," she said.

Milne said she would fly down to be with her Christchurch-based family on Sunday.

"It’s just unreal in little New Zealand. It’s so not real. It’s going to be very real when I get to Christchurch tomorrow."

In Dunedin, cordons have been lifted from Sommerville St, where police were investigating a potential connection with the Christchurch mosque shootings.