Two Hostages, Gunman Killed as Police Raids Sydney Cafe

World | December 15, 2014, Monday // 21:38
Bulgaria: Two Hostages, Gunman Killed as Police Raids Sydney Cafe Paramedics treat an injured person outside on the street after police special forces stormed a cafe where hostages were held in Martin Place, Sydney, Australia. Photo: EPA

Commandos from the Royal Australian Regiment stormed the cafe in Sydney where a gunman had held hostages in a siege which lasted 16 hours.

Paramedics entered immediately after the police had stormed the building, the BBC reports.

The gunman and two of the hostages were killed in the raid.

The centre of Sydney has been blocked since early on Monday morning, when the abductor took dozens of hostages in Lindt Chocolat Cafe, located in Martin Place, a busy shopping area near the city's financial district.

Earlier some of the hostages were forced to hold a black Islamic banner at the window of the cafe.

New South Wales police announced the end of the siege at 02:44 local time, promising to reveal further details later.

The police suspects self-styled cleric Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee who had been granted political asylum in Australia in 1996, as the possible kidnapper.

On a website, which is now suspended, he described himself as a Shia Muslum who converted to Sunni Islam.

He demanded to be provided with a flag of Islamic State (IS) at the cafe and requested a conversation with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Australia which has joined the air strikes of the international coalition against IS in Iraq, carried out a bid anti-terrorist raid in September, followed by the approval of new anti-terrorist laws by Parliament in October.

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Tags: Australia, Sydney, cafe, hostage, siege, kidnapper, Gunman, police, raid, IS

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