The grieving families of 50 people gunned down in Christchurch on Friday have pleaded for authorities to speed up the process of releasing the victims’ bodies for burial, as a Perth woman plans to attend the funeral of her three-year-old half-brother killed in the massacre.

Some frustrated members of the Christchurch Muslim community said they needed to know if a mass burial service could be held before the weekend as police, the coroner and other government officials tried to deal with concerns about religious sensitivities.

Bodies of Muslims should be washed, wrapped in cloth and buried within 24 hours of death.

Camera Icon Mucaad Ibrahim Credit: AP

Perth mother Khadra Ibrahim was still reeling from news that her three-year-old half-brother Mucaad Ibrahim was shot dead in the Al Noor Mosque on Friday.

“My father survived,” she said yesterday. “I got to speak with him two hours ago. There were six members of my family at the mosque on that day. Mucaad died in his father’s arms.”

Mrs Ibrahim, 41, moved from New Zealand to Perth in 1999. She said her mother died and when her father remarried he had six other children.

“I used to speak to Mucaad on Facetime and I was going to meet him for the first time in April,” she said.

“I hope to get to New Zealand in time for his burial.”

The enormous task of positively identifying the dozens of men, women and children killed, together with the need to build a case against the accused, Brenton Tarrant, has delayed the cultural norm.

New Zealand police said last night 12 victims had been identified and six of those had been released to their families.

Simon Manning, the national co-ordinator of the funeral directors’ disaster response to the Christchurch shootings, said he did not expect large numbers of the bodies to be released before the weekend.

Camera Icon Khadra Ibrahim with her son Abdirahman Hassan and husband Mohamed Abdirahman. Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper

“If the coroner’s office and police don’t do their jobs properly at this point it becomes a major problem later on,” Mr Manning said. “When people are wanting answers when it comes to a court case and it’s not done right then there will be a lot of angry people.”

Tarrant indicated in a document before he allegedly murdered the 50 people in two Christchurch mosques that he would plead not guilty if arrested.

Up to 50 graves have been dug in a section of the Memorial Park Cemetery. A giant marquee has been constructed for a mass burial service.

But a local Muslim association leader, Mohammad Huk, said the families were becoming agitated by the time being taken.

“The top people working on this need to get through this process and have the bodies released,” he said.

“We don’t want to protest about this because we know people are trying hard.”