Christchurch gunman visited Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia in late 2016, early 2017

Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald/Pool via REUTERS

The main suspect of Friday’s murder of 49 people at two mosques in New Zealand had visited Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia in late 2016 and early 2017, N1 found out.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, armed with semi-automatic weapons rampaged through two mosques in the city of Christchurch during afternoon prayers, killing 49 worshippers and wounding dozens more.

Tarrant spent two weeks in Croatia and visited Zagreb, Porec, Zadar, Sibenik and Dubrovnik. Sleeping in hostels, he went sightseeing the main touristic spots and attracted no attention.

He left Croatia on a flight from Zagreb.

Authorities are looking into Tarrant’s movements in Southeast Europe and Bulgarian authorities have said they were investigating possible contacts the Australian man may have had when he recently visited the Balkans.

Tarrant posted a video of the attack online. A Serb nationalist song from the 1990's war in Bosnia can be heard in the background as he was driving to the scene of the crime. He also wrote the names of Bulgarian, Serbian and Montenegrin historical figures and places on his weapons.

During his Balkans visit, Tarrant reportedly travelled in November to Bucharest, Romania, rented a car there and drove to Hungary.

He aslo visited Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Croatia in December 2016, according to Bulgarian Intelligence.

Tarrant appeared in court on Friday on a murder charge.