SYDNEY (AP) — Five people escaped
from a Sydney cafe where a gunman took an unknown number of hostages
during Monday morning rush hour. Two people inside the cafe earlier held
up a flag with an Islamic declaration of faith that has often been used
by extremists, raising fears that a terrorist incident was playing out
in the heart of Australia's biggest city.
The first
three people ran out of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in downtown Sydney six
hours into the hostage crisis, and two women sprinted from a fire exit
into the arms of waiting police shortly afterward. Both women were
wearing aprons with the Lindt chocolate logo, indicating they were cafe
employees.
As the siege
entered its 12th hour Monday night, basic questions remained unanswered.
Police refused to say how many hostages were inside the cafe, what they
believed the gunman's motives might be, whether he had made any demands
or whether the hostages who fled the cafe escaped or were released.
"I
would like to give you as much as I can but right now that is as much
as I can," New South Wales state police Commissioner Andrew Scipione
said. "First and foremost, we have to make sure we do nothing that could
in any way jeopardize those still in the building."
Police were negotiating with the
gunman and said they had no information to suggest anyone had been
hurt. Scipione said they had not confirmed whether the siege was related
to terrorism.
"Our only goal
tonight and for as long as this takes is to get those people that are
currently caught in that building out of there safely," he said.
Channel 10 news said it
received a video in which a hostage inside the cafe had relayed the
gunman's demands. The station said police requested they not broadcast
it, and Scipione separately asked all media that might be contacted by
the gunman to urge him instead to talk to police.
The
drama began around 9:45 a.m. in Martin Place, a plaza in the heart of
the city's financial and shopping district that is packed with holiday
shoppers this time of year. Many of those inside the cafe would have
been taken hostage as they stopped in for their morning coffees.
Television
video shot through the cafe's windows showed several people with their
arms in the air and hands pressed against the glass, and two people
holding up a black flag with the Shahada, or Islamic declaration of
faith, written on it.
he Shahada translates as "There
is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger." It is considered the
first of Islam's five pillars of faith, and is similar to the Lord's
Prayer in Christianity. It is pervasive throughout Islamic culture,
including the green flag of Saudi Arabia. Jihadis have used the Shahada
in their own black flag.
A
number of Australian Muslim groups condemned the hostage-taking in a
joint statement and said the flag's inscription was a "testimony of
faith that has been misappropriated by misguided individuals."
In a show of solidarity, many
Australians offered on Twitter to accompany people dressed in Muslim
clothes who were afraid of a backlash from the cafe siege. The hashtag
#IllRideWithYou was used more than 90,000 times by late Monday evening.
Seven
Network television news staff watched the gunman and hostages for hours
from a fourth floor window of their Sydney offices, opposite the cafe.
The
gunman could be seen pacing back and forth past the cafe's windows.
Reporter Chris Reason said the man carried what appeared to be a
pump-action shotgun, was unshaven and wore a white shirt and a black
cap.
Earlier in the day, network staff counted about 15 different faces among hostages forced up against the windows.
"The
gunman seems to be sort of rotating these people through these
positions on the windows with their hands and faces up against the
glass," Reason said in a report from the vantage point. "One woman we've
counted was there for at least two hours — an extraordinary, agonizing
time for her surely having to stand on her feet for that long."
"When we saw that rush of
escapees, we could see from up here in this vantage point the gunman got
extremely agitated as he realized those five had got out. He started
screaming orders at the people, the hostages who remain behind," he
added.
Reason later reported that staff brought plates of food from a kitchen at the rear of the cafe and the hostages were fed.
As
night set in, the lights inside the cafe were switched off. Armed
police guarding the area outside fitted their helmets with green-glowing
night goggles.
St. Vincent's
hospital spokesman David Faktor said a male hostage was in satisfactory
condition in the hospital's emergency department. He was the only one
of the freed hostages to be taken to a hospital, and Scipione said he
was being treated for a pre-existing condition.
Hundreds
of police blanketed the city, streets were closed and offices
evacuated. The public was told to stay away from Martin Place, site of
the state premier's office, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the
headquarters of two of the nation's largest banks. The state parliament
house is a few blocks away.
Workers in the cordoned-off area
were asked to stay home Tuesday, indicating police believe the hostage
drama could stretch into the next day.
"This
is a very disturbing incident," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. "It is
profoundly shocking that innocent people should be held hostage by an
armed person claiming political motivation."
Lindt Australia posted a message on its Facebook page thanking the public for its support.
"We
are deeply concerned over this serious incident and our thoughts and
prayers are with the staff and customers involved and all their friends
and families," the company wrote.
Infosys,
India's second-largest IT services provider, confirmed that one of its
employees was among the hostages. The staffer's family has been
informed, it said.
Australia's government raised
the country's terror warning level in September in response to the
domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State group.
Counterterror law enforcement teams later conducted dozens of raids and
made several arrests in Australia's three largest cities — Melbourne,
Sydney and Brisbane. One man arrested during a series of raids in Sydney
was charged with conspiring with an Islamic State leader in Syria to
behead a random person in downtown Sydney.
The
Islamic State group, which now holds a third of Syria and Iraq, has
threatened Australia in the past. In September, Islamic State group
spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani issued an audio message urging
so-called "lone wolf" attacks abroad, specifically mentioning Australia.
Al-Adnani told Muslims to kill all "disbelievers," whether they be
civilians or soldiers.
One terrorism expert said the
situation appeared to be that of a "lone wolf" making his own demands,
rather than an attack orchestrated by a foreign jihadist group.
"There
haven't been statements from overseas linking this to extremist groups
outside the country — that is quite positive," said Charles Knight,
lecturer in the Department of Policing, Intelligence and Counter
Terrorism at Australia's Macquarie University. "The individual or
individuals involved didn't kill early, which is part of the pattern of
some recent international attacks. ... It seems to be shifting more into
the model of a traditional hostage situation, rather than the sort of
brutal attacks we've seen overseas."
___
Associated
Press writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Nick Perry in Wellington, New
Zealand, Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok, Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin and
Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.
Credit to : http://news.yahoo.com
