Around
9.30am this morning Dec. 14th, a man witnesses described as wearing a
headband covered in Arabic walked into a
central Sydney cafe, produced a gun and now holding several people -
about 15/20 - hostage inside the cafe. He later forced crying women to
hold a black
Islamic flag up to the window. He is believed to be affiliated with
Islamic sect ISIS. Read full story after the cut...
From UK Daily Mail
Fear etched
into their faces, two young female employees have fled a central Sydney
cafe more than seven hours after a terrorist armed with a gun took more
than a dozen 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
the Lindt cafe in Martin Place an hour after a male employee and two
male customers scrambled from a fire exit and sheltered behind heavily
armed police officers shortly before 3.45pm on Monday.
It
is understood the hostages escaped from the cafe, rather than being
released by their captor. One former male hostage has been taken to
nearby St Vincent's Hospital, in Sydney's inner suburbs, and is being
treated for a pre-existing condition.
The gunman flew into a rage when he realised some of his captives had escaped.
'The
gunman could be seen from here getting extremely agitated, shouting at
remaining hostages,' tweeted journalist Chris Reason, who has a direct
line of sight into the cafe from the Seven Network newsroom directly
opposite and inside the police cordon.
The
light inside the building has gone off tonight, Mr Reason said, but
police would not reveal whether it was a law enforcement or
hostage-taker tactic.
Police negotiators have learned the name of the man and have made contact.
This evening, Mr Reason said he could see the gunman rotating the hostages through positions in the store's window.
'From
inside Martin Place we can see the faces of hostages - pained,
strained, eyes red and raw,' he recounted. Food and water was also being
delivered to the prisoners from the cafe's back kitchens.
Seven
Network staff have counted around 15 hostages in the cafe, he said,
rather than the 50 reported by Lindt Australia CEO Steve Loane earlier
on Monday.
Daily
Mail Australia understands a 25-year-old female fashion industry worker
and two female baristas aged in their 30s are among that number.
As
scores of heavily armed police, clad in black, remained on guard in
Martin Place, Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione tonight said police
would do whatever it takes for the situation to be peacefully
resolved.
On
Monday morning, witnesses described how a man wearing a headband
covered in Arabic walked into the cafe around 9:30am and produced a
shotgun from a blue bag.
Shortly
afterwards, as police surged into the city, 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.
The
hostage taker is believed to have demanded a flag of the Islamic State
terror group in Iraq and Syria and to talk to Prime Minister Tony
Abbott.
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| A young female employee came running out of the Lindt cafe shortly before 5pm and was sheltered by waiting police |
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Ms Chen, pictured, was the fifth hostage, scrambling from the cafe with her hands in the air
|
Sydney was
eerily quiet on Monday night. Office buildings went into lockdown
earlier this morning, Martin Place train station - a central
thoroughfare for workers - was shuttered. Events at the Opera House,
such as a performance of the Nutcracker, were cancelled as the city icon
was evacuated.
Hundreds
of heavily armed police, operating under unprecedented Task Force
Pioneer counter-terrorism protocols, were scouring the city, completely
isolating the darkened cafe.
In
an evening press conference, state Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione
sent a message of support directly to those imprisoned in the chocolate
cafe, at the whims of an unknown quantity.
'Rest
assured, we are doing all we can to set you free,' he said, boasting
that the state has the 'best police negotiators in the country' and that
the safety of hostages was authorities' 'number one priority'.
Police believe all hostages remain uninjured. '[And] if that's true, for that we're grateful,' Commissioner Scipione said.
Detectives have refused to confirm what weapons the militant is carrying, or even if the militant is accompanied by allies.
Queensland's
police commissioner Ian Stewart said earlier on Monday that he had
information an improvised explosive device may be involved, but state
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has tonight refused to confirm
that.
NSW
Premier Mike Baird warned workers in the Central Business District that
Martin Place and surrounding areas would remain an exclusion zone into
Tuesday.
'If you work in this exclusion zone, I'd ask you to work from home tomorrow morning,' a resolute Mr Baird told reporters.
Monday's
crisis began just hours after a 25-year-old suspect was arrested in a
terror raid in Beecroft, a leafy suburb in Sydney's north-west, but
police denied a link between the two events.
Two men, believed to be customers, ran around a corner and hid behind heavily armed police after six hours inside the cafe
On Monday
morning, 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 after the gunman stormed the store.
'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.'
2GB
radio host Ray Hadley said he had three tense telephone conversations
with one of the hostages inside the cafe and he could hear the gunman
giving demands.
The
hostage asked to be put to air live following the instructions of the
gunman. However, Hadley refused saying he didn't have the expertise to
deal with the situation.
'There are some people who are not well. They've been in there for five hours, they're distraught,' he said.
'I'm not in a position to comply with requests that have been made, I can't.
'The
media can't play a role in negotiating with people purporting to be
from Islamic State holding hostages in a cafe in Sydney. This is the job
of authorities to solve htis problem.
'They want us to say things that we simply can't say.'
Witnesses
described the chaotic scenes in the legal, business and media centre as
it was shut down and scores of heavily armed police surrounded the
Lindt building.
All of the chocolate chain's stores around Sydney were closed following the incident, in an act of camaraderie.
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| Hostages by the window |
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| The terrorist |
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