Sydney Siege

Attention gamers, this is a Mtn Dew Code Red Alert.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/storystream/live-sydney-siege-hostages-held-martin-place-cafe

From what I know, some dude walked into the Lindt café (a chocolate-centric café in Sydney's CBD) with guns and took everyone inside as a hostage.

Earlier in the day, the black standard flag was raised by one of the hostages. As of the now, no motivation has been stated and no communication has been made with the captor.

UPDATE: Five hostages have fled the scene and police have made contact with the captor, however no details have been explored with that. One hostage has been taken to hospital not as the result of any inflicted injury, but a pre-existing condition.

 

[Ariel]

I'm watching the ABC News 24 coverage. Not much is going on right now, they are just telling people in Sydney to leave work at their normal time, but expect delays.
There is going to be a press conference with the deputy police commissioner in 30 mins, so presumably there will be some new info with that.

It's quite weird to me because on Friday i've got an annual liquid lunch and christmas shopping trip in the Melbourne CBD. The Lindt cafe on Collins St is part of this tradition. :S


Probably a good thing that there would still be a lot of police officers who were trained for this kind of thing during the Sydney Olympics in the force.

edited to add: Summer holidays started on Friday for private schools (possibly all IDK i'm from Victoria), so no doubt there are children involved.

 

[XYZpdq]

If they can't deal with one guy with a gun how are these people supposed to survive living in Australia?

 

[Ariel]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/ Here is a local news stream. I don't think it's geoblocked, not that it should be an issue for kiwis.

 

[XYZpdq]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/ Here is a local news stream. I don't think it's geoblocked, not that it should be an issue for kiwis.

Thanks a ton! I'm at work at a media outlet and we're stuck with CNN at the moment. CNN seems to think its documentary about dinosaur bones is more important than world news.

Maybe if there was a black person in the hostages they'd give a shit lol.

 

[AnimuGinger]

The flag is believed to read, roughly, "There is no deity of worship except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of God." in Arabic.

Very common in Islam to proclaim this.

 

[Uzumaki]

The flag is believed to read, roughly, "There is no deity of worship except Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of God." in Arabic.

Very common in Islam to proclaim this.

Interestingly, though, it's not a flag associated with ISIS (I've always loved that beautifully Bondian acronym. I refuse to use IS or ISIL for that reason. Not giving it up. Shan't.)

 

[Metal Sink]

The gunman has been identified as Man Haron Monis. Sometime within the hour of 2AM, a firefight commenced followed by the police storming the building and more hostages have escaped. Many paramedics have started racing to the scene, it can be assumed that someone was injured.

 

[AnimuGinger]

In the eyes of the general public, that flag may as well be ISIS. You only really exclaim that during prayer, times of hardship, or in battle.

 

[Artard]

Well okay then:

Police say they believe the man who seized hostages inside a cafe in Sydney, Australia, is Man Haron Monis.

The self-styled Muslim cleric was born in Iran and sought political asylum in Australia in 1996.

He is well known to the Australian police and is currently on bail for being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife.

He is also facing more than 40 sexual and indecent assault charges.

That's a mouthful. "40 sexual and indecent assault charges" don't really scratch the surface of his criminal career:

It has been Monis' on-going legal battle for his conviction for penning the poisonous letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers between 2007 and 2009 that has consumed him.

It is understood Monday's incident followed an unsuccessful, last-ditch attempted in the High Court on Friday to have the charges overturned.

Monis was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and placed on a two year good behaviour bond for the "offensive and deplorable letters" sent with the assistance of his girlfriend Amirah Droudis.

...

Monis claimed the letters were his own version of a "flower basket" or "condolence card".

Bree Till, widow of Sergeant Brett Till, killed while defusing a bomb on March 12, 2009, said at the time of his conviction: "We sat reading these letters (which) made out to be something supportive but then the juxtaposition of this man accusing my husband of being a child-killer while dictating how I should raise my children. It was scary," she said.

The ex-wife murder charges:

He was charged in November 2013 with being an accessory before and after the fact to the murder of his ex-wife Noleen Hayson Pal.

Ms Pal was stabbed and set alight in a Werrington apartment block.

And of course the 40+ sexual assault charges:

And then in April this year, Monis was charged by sex crimes squad detectives with the indecent and sexual assault of a woman in western Sydney in 2002.

Police allege that Monis was a self-proclaimed "spiritual healer" who operated out of premises on Station Street at Wentworthville.

News of his arrest prompted more victims to come forward and Monis was hit with an additional 40 charges in October.

It is alleged that Monis placed ads in local newspapers offering "spiritual consultation".

He claimed to be an expert in astrology, numerology, meditation and black magic.

Monis has posted online that the police charges are part of a witch hunt against him.

It looks like a death-by-cop situation. He looked to be about as much of a "devout Muslim" as he was a colossal crackpot, and all of his past had fully caught up with him.