Sydney Cafe Siege comes to an end, 2 Indian hostages safely evacuated
Sydney: After 17 long hours, Sydney Cafe Siege come to an end and all the hostages were evacuated by Australian police.Two Indian hostages including Infosys employee Ankireddi Viswakanth were also safely evacuated.Shri Pushpendu Ghosh was
Sydney: After 17 long hours, Sydney Cafe Siege come to an end and all the hostages were evacuated by Australian police.
Two Indian hostages including Infosys employee Ankireddi Viswakanth were also safely evacuated.
Shri Pushpendu Ghosh was the other Indian hostage.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has confirmed that both the Indians are safe.
According to police, the gunman Man Haron Monis was killed in the operation. Two of the hostages were also killed.
READ ALSO: Know the gunman behind Sydney Café Siege
According to media reports, three people have been seriously injured.
An Indian IT professional Ankireddi Viswakanth, working with Infosys, was one of the 30 hostages in Sydney cafe siege.
Earlier, the Sydney hostage gunman wanted to talk to the Australian PM Tony Abbott. The lone gunman, reportedly havd 30 hostages, also wanted an ISIS flag.
The gunman had warned authorities that four bombs have been planted in the city.
Earlier, five people had managed to run out of the Sydney cafe where a gunman has taken hostages and displayed an Islamic flag.
The Indian Consulate in Sydney had been evacuated in view of the hostage situation. According to Indian External Affairs Ministry all the staff members were safe.
“As a preventive measure in accordance with the local requirements, we have evacuated the staff from the Sydney Consulate building because it is located about 300-400 metres away from where this incident took place,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.
The potential development came six hours after a gunman took an unknown number of people hostage inside a downtown Sydney chocolate shop and cafe at the height of Monday morning rush hour.
“The information that I have is that nobody has been harmed or injured at the moment,” New South Wales Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said.
“We clearly are dealing with a situation that is unfolding and it's happening as we speak and the most important thing is the safety of those hostages and I wouldn't want to do anything that may impact on the safety of those hostages.”
“A peaceful resolution will be what we are working for,” she said.
Authorities sealed off surrounding streets, evacuated people from buildings, and suspended rail services following the incident at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Martin Place, in the heart of the city's business district.
Martin Place is a public pedestrian thoroughfare through the heart of Sydney, joining its parliamentary, legal and retail districts.
Television footage showed people inside the cafe with their hands pressed against the window holding the black flag known as Shahadah, a prayer spoken in mosques daily, and not a flag specific to the Islamic State.
Read Also: Radio host speaks to hostage in Sydney café
Prime Minister Tony Abbott convened a meeting of his security inner circle in his cabinet to discuss the response to the hostage-taking.
"We don't yet know the motivation of the perpetrator, we don't know whether this is politically motivated, although obviously there are some indications that it could be," Abbott said at a short media briefing held in Canberra, Australia's capital.
"Australia is a peaceful, open and generous society and nothing should ever change that and that is why I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual."
Hundreds of police had been mobilised, including those specially trained for terrorist threats, tactical officers and neogtiators to general duties officers and traffic police handling road closures.
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