By Danuta Kozaki, ABC News
Jessica Rozen used her pregnant body to shield a girl during gunfire, but she says she saw many other heroes that day. Photo: ABC News / Paul Pandoulis
Warning: This article includes descriptions of violence.
A pregnant woman who used her body to shield a stranger's child during the Bondi Beach terror attack says she is "not a hero".
Fifteen people died and dozens were injured when two men opened fire on a community gathering celebrating the Jewish festival Hanukkah near the iconic beach.
Jessica Rozen said she and her husband took their two young children to the Chanukah by the Sea event on Sunday.
"I was talking to some friends in a covered concrete area," she said.
"My husband had our daughter and my mother-in-law had taken my son to the toilet."
Tributes are continuing to grow for the 15 people killed in the terror attack on Sunday. Photo: ABC News / Mary Lloyd
Rozen said she was looking for where her son had wandered off to when gunshots rang out.
"At first I thought it was fireworks, and when I saw someone shot and bleeding, I doubled down on my search for my son," she said.
"I spent a few more seconds looking in an open area and understood I could not look for him anymore due to the gunshots everywhere."
As she scrambled to find her son, Rozen came across a child she did not know crying.
"I turned around and saw a little girl screaming for her mum, so I ran towards her. I grabbed her. I moved maybe five more steps, there was a lot of gunfire and then I lay down on top of her, behind some chairs."
Rozen said that was when instinct kicked in.
"I ran to an uncovered area when there are bullets because I am a mum and I saw a three-year-old girl, and any mum is going to do that.
"If you see a baby and the baby is crying and they do not have anyone and they are not safe, you help a baby."
The unprecedented attack has rocked the community across Sydney. Photo: ABC News / Mary Lloyd
She said everyone was lying down on the ground and screaming.
"It was clear the gunman was shooting at people who were lying on the floor, children, old people, women," she said.
The mother of two said she saw a woman shot in the head only a metre and a half away.
"I got hit by something, I don't know what. I was just trying to lie on top of the little girl and make sure she was safe. I was covered in blood."
Rozen said she saw many people doing brave things.
"I saw Reuven Morrison, who is a close family friend of ours, and I yelled at him to get down," she said.
"Everyone else was lying down and he was walking in the open area. Now I know he was drawing fire to make sure people were safe."
Family reunited
Rozen said after the gunfire had subsided, a man approached her, crouching.
"He said, 'You have my baby girl, my daughter,'" she said.
Rozen said she was initially scared.
A vigil in Bondi Beach has attracted thousands in the wake of the attack. Photo: ABC News / Jack Fisher
"I was afraid to give the girl to anyone because I didn't know what was happening, but then she said 'Daddy' and I was very relieved and grateful," she said.
"The father asked for my number and he said: 'You are a hero. You saved my daughter's life'.
"I'm not a hero. There are many, many people who were heroes that evening.
"My heroes are my husband and mother-in-law because they saved my babies and that makes them heroes to me."
Rozen said she had since met the family of the girl she saved.
"I reunited with the girl's parents and herself a day or two ago," she said.
"She seems to be doing well. She's talking and dressing up like a princess."
Rozen said she did what she could.
"I don't know if she felt safe, but she was safe, as safe as I could make her and that counts for something."
She said that, while she went to hospital after the attack and had a scar on her nose and shoulder, she counted herself lucky.
"I am very, very lucky and there were a lot of people who were not that lucky," she said.
- ABC