mmalabanan
A total of five hostages have managed to escape the hostage drama inside the Lindt Cafe in Martin Plaza in Sidney, Australia seven hours after its take down on Monday.
At around 9:45 am, an armed man reportedly entered the cafe and held dozens of staff and customers in captive since then. Some sobbing women were seen holding a Shahada flag up in the cafe’s window, linking the attack to extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra.
Although the number of hostages inside the cafe has not been confirmed, New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn believe there are less than 30 held in captive.
Furthermore, Burn said that the police are already negotiating with the gunman.
She said: “We will work with these people to figure out more information. We do not have information to suggest that anyone is harmed at this stage.”
Earlier today, Prime Minister Tony Abbott made an assurance that the Australian law enforcement will be able to handle the incident. He also encouraged citizens to go on with their everyday lives despite the “deeply concerning incident”.
Abbott said: “Australia is a peaceful, open and generous society – nothing should ever change that and that’s why I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual.”
Gunman Gives Demands
Meanwhile, 2GB radio host Ray Hadley claimed he was able to talk to one of the hostages inside the cafe.
Reportedly, the gunman demanded to be put on live air but Hadley refused to grant his demand order since he didn’t have expertise in handling such situation.
He said: “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 his problem.”
In September this year, Australia’s national public terrorism alert was raised to “high” following increasing concerns on extreme Islamists supposed attack to the country.
