Monday, December 15, 2014

Breaking News: Gunman takes hostages in cafe in Sydney


    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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