Two young female employees have now fled a central Sydney
cafe more than seven hours after a terrorist armed with a gun took dozens of
people hostage and forced crying women to hold a black Islamic flag up to the
window.
A total of five hostages, including barista Elly Chen, have
now escaped Lindt cafe in Martin Place after a male employee and two male
customers ran out a fire exit and hid behind heavily armed police officers
shortly before 3.45pm on Monday. Daily Mail Australia understands the hostages escaped from
the cafe and were not released. One former hostage has been taken to St
Vincent's Hospital, in Sydney's inner suburbs. Police negotiators learned the name of the hostage-taker and
have since made contact with him.Multiple media outlets, including the Ten Network and Radio
2UE, have received calls from hostages where the gunman has requested an
Islamic State flag and a conversation with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
The militant also claimed he had 'two bombs inside the cafe'
and two elsewhere in the city, according to Ten. Police have not confirmed his
precise weaponry. Chris Reason, a journalist from the Seven Network - whose
offices are directly across from the cafe - tonight said he could see the
gunman rotating hostages standing up against windows. 'From inside Martin Place we can see the faces of hostages -
pained, strained, eyes red and raw,' he recounted on Twitter. Mr Reason said food was being delivered to the prisoners
from the cafe's back kitchen.
Seven staff have counted around 15 hostages throughout the
day, he said, rather than the 50 reported by Lindt Australia CEO Steve Loane.Deputy NSW Police Commissioner Catherine Burn said police
were planning to 'work into the night' - and even tomorrow - should the crisis
continue. Witnesses earlier described how a man wearing a headband
covered in Arabic walked into the cafe and produced a shotgun from a blue bag
around 9.45am.Shortly afterwards, hostages were seen with their hands
pressed against the windows holding up the Islamic Shahada flag. It is an
emblem of extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is fighting the Assad
government in Syria. Armed police have sealed off streets around the cafe,
office buildings went into lockdown and Martin Place train station is shut as
officers operate according to Task Force Pioneer counter-terrorism protocols.
The incident began just hours after a 25-year-old suspect
was arrested in a terror raid in Sydney's north-west. Deputy Commissioner Burn said police were currently
assessing the health of the freed hostages.'They are now out of the building and are with
police. First thing we're doing is making sure they're okay. We will work
with these people to find out some more information. The information I
have is that no one has been harmed of injured,' she said. Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said: 'We have
moved to a footing that would be consistent with a terrorist event'.Officers are still trying to work out the motivation for the
situation, according to Mr Scipione.
Queensland's police commissioner Ian Stewart says he has
information an improvised explosive device may be involved, but Mr Scipione was
unable to confirm that. 'This is a difficult day for everyone. I can confirm to you
we have an armed offender holding an undisclosed number of hostages in the
city,' Mr Scipione said.'Police have been in attendance and have controlled the
situation from very early this morning shortly after it was advised. We are at
this stage continuing to secure and do all we can to ensure this goes to a
peaceful outcome.'
Columnist Chris Kenny, who was in the shop about 20
minutes before the siege began, said he understood the automatic glass sliding
doors had been disabled.'I did speak to a couple of people who saw a bit more of
this unfold than I did,' he said.'One woman said she tried to go into the shop just after I
came out with my takeaway coffee but the doors wouldn't open.'So obviously whoever is doing this has disabled the
automatic glass sliding doors to stop anyone else going in and she said
immediately she could see there was a weapon. 'The woman was quite frantic but very clear what she was
telling (the police).'I know the faces of the people who are sitting there
enjoying a morning coffee.More pics below.
Via. daily mail
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