Sydney cafe siege brought to bloody end

Three people including the gunman killed, four injured


Afp/web Desk/reuters December 15, 2014

SYDNEY: At least three people, including the gunman, were killed as heavily armed Australian police early Tuesday dramatically stormed a central Sydney cafe to end a day-long siege sparked when an Iranian-born extremist took several people hostage.

Security forces in SWAT-style gear intervened, unleashing a flurry of loud bangs and flashes in the eatery in the heart of Australia's biggest city, after a number of the staff and customers managed to flee for their lives.

An AFP photographer saw one body carried out. Sky News also reported four people were wounded, three of them critically.

Royal North Shore Hospital had admitted a woman in her 40s with a gunshot wound to her leg, a spokesperson told AFP. She was in a serious but stable condition.

A bomb robot, which is used to detect and disarm explosives, was subsequently sent into the building as police declared the siege over and medics tended to hostages.

"Sydney siege is over. More details to follow," police announced on Twitter.

The hostage­taker, who earlier had unfurled an Islamic flag, was named by ABC television and other media as a 49-year-old Iranian-­born "cleric" called Man Haron Monis.

They published a photo of him sporting a beard and a white turban and said he was on bail for a series of violent offences.

The pre­Christmas siege of the Lindt chocolate cafe began Monday morning and triggered a massive security lockdown in Sydney's financial district as hundreds of police surrounded the site.

Monis's former lawyer Manny Conditsis said the public could be assured that the siege was not the work of an organised terrorist group.

"This is a one-off random individual," he told broadcaster ABC. "It's not a concerted terrorism event or act. It's a damaged­goods individual who's done something outrageous."

The police have not confirmed if the people who ran out of the cafe were released, ABC News reporter Lucy Carter tweeted.

https://twitter.com/lucethoughts/status/544426274173632513

"We have moved to a footing that would be consistent with a terrorist event," Andrew Scipione, police commissioner for the state of New South Wales, told reporters in Sydney.

The NSW police has also requested media outlets not to release the identity of hostage taker.

https://twitter.com/lucethoughts/status/544444585213063168

Police, including heavily armed paramilitary officers, cordoned off several blocks around the cafe as negotiators tried to defuse one of the biggest security scares in Australia for decades. Snipers and a SWAT team could be seen taking up positions around the cafe and police helicopters flew overhead.

The New South Wales government on Monday set up an exclusion zone asking people who work in the Martin Place area of Sydney to work from home on Tuesday because of the hostage situation.

The Grand Mufti of Australia and the Australian National Imam's Council (ANIC) have denounced the incident in a media statement.*

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has warned of militant plans to strike Australian targets, said there were indications the hostage situation at the cafe was politically motivated.

"This is a very disturbing incident. I can understand the concerns and anxieties of the Australian people," Abbott told reporters in Canberra, without providing any information on the siege.

Australia, a staunch ally of the United States and its escalating action against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, is on high alert for attacks by home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East.

The cafe was directly opposite a commercial television studio and footage earlier showed several people inside the cafe standing with their hands pressed against the windows.

Pictures showed a black and white flag similar to those used by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria being held up by what appeared to be a staff member and another woman.

The incident forced the evacuation of nearby buildings in Sydney's central business district and sent shockwaves around a country where many people have started to turn their attention to the approaching Christmas festive season following earlier security scares.

Sydney's Channel 7 journalist Chris Reason, who has a direct line of sight of the cafe, has tweeted that the gunman seems agitated when five hostages escaped and that the cafe is completely dark.





The New South Wales Police has advised people to call the National Security Hotline if they have any information about the incident.



#IllRideWithYou

Meanwhile, Australians have offered to travel with people wearing religious attire on public transport by tweeting the hashtag #IllRideWithYou.

Anticipating backlash, Sydney residents have became concerned about the potential for intolerance or harassment towards people wearing religious attire.

The social media campaign to express solidarity with the city’s Muslims was started by Sydney resident and TV content editor Tessa Kum, who told Guardian Australia that she started the hashtag after seeing this tweet from Michael James.

https://twitter.com/MichaelJames_TV/status/544339713394368512

Evacuating by ladder

Dozens of heavily armed police surrounded the cafe in Martin Place after the siege began around 9:45am local time. The area is home to the Reserve Bank of Australia, several commercial banks and is close to the New South Wales state parliament.

"I walked up to the door and then everyone was sitting down and the door's locked which is pretty weird because it's never locked and there was one guy walking around with a hat and a beard," a man who identified himself as Bruno, a worker at the cafe, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp, referring to the suspected assailant. He said he then turned away.

Several hours into the siege, police led about two dozen people out of a building opposite the cafe and through the cordon. Others were evacuated from the building above the cafe by ladder, television pictures showed.

Earlier, Lindt Australia Chief Executive Steve Loane told Sky Business there were about 10 staff working at the cafe and "probably 30 customers" although he said that figure was an estimate.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said staff had been locked down inside the building, and were all safe and accounted for.

The nearby US consulate was also evacuated, according to an embassy spokesperson, along with the Sydney Opera House. Tourists were being let back into the world-famous venue by early afternoon.

Banks and shops close

Major banks closed their offices in the central business district and people were told to avoid the area. Shops in a four block radius were shut, leaving large parts of the CBD all but deserted by mid-afternoon.

Traders in currency markets said the hostage news may have contributed to a dip in the Australian dollar, which was already under pressure from global risk aversion as oil prices fell anew.

Ray Hadley, a popular radio jockey, said he had been contacted by a hostage and could hear the suspected gunman issuing orders in the background. Police declined to comment on Hadley's claim.

Concerns about an attack in Australia by radical Islamists have been growing for more than a year, with the security agency raising its national terrorism public alert to "high" in September.

That month, a spokesperson for the Islamic State urged supporters in Western nations, including Australia, to attack civilians or military personnel at home.

 

* The statement put out by the Grand Mufti of Australia and the Australian National Imam's Council denouncing the incident:

COMMENTS (31)

Sexton Blake | 9 years ago | Reply

@Allah_Rukha: Are you referring to the hundreds of thousands killed by the Western military or some other group?

Allah_Rukha | 9 years ago | Reply

@Sexton Blake: So concerned about 160 yet forgotten hundreds of thousands who are involved in the abhorrent and barbaric acts of beheading, burning alive and mass suicidal killings?

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