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Hostages Are Held Inside Cafe in Australia, Police Say Gunmen Take Hostages, Holding Black Flag in Sydney
(about 2 hours later)
SYDNEY, Australia — Armed police surrounded a café in Sydney’s central business district Monday morning after one or more gunmen took hostages and displayed a black flag with Arabic script in white in the cafe window. SYDNEY, Australia — Helicopters hovered over central Sydney and Prime Minister Tony Abbott convened a meeting with his security advisers on Monday after one or more gunmen took hostages in a Sydney cafe and displayed a black flag with Arabic script in white in the window.
A police spokesman confirmed officers were called to the Lindt Chocolate Café, in Martin Place, a major shopping and pedestrian thoroughfare, at around 10 a.m. Police officers surrounded the cafe in the central business district where the hostages were pressed against the window holding the black flag. The number of hostages was unclear, but several held a flag with writing that appeared to be the shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith.
A commercial television network, Channel Seven, which has a studio near the cafe, showed footage of people, wearing the Lindt uniforms, pressed against the cafe windows, displaying the flag. “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,” Mr. Abbott said at a short media briefing held in Canberra, Australia’s capital. “There are people, even in a society such as ours, who would wish to do us harm.”
The police have shut down parts of the city’s transport system, and closed off the mall area. They would not confirm how many people were being held hostage inside the cafe, nor whether those inside are armed. “The whole point of politically motivated violence is to scare people out of being themselves,” he said. “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.”
Local media reports said that the airspace over Sydney had been closed and the famed Sydney Opera House evacuated. Television images showed heavily armed officers with their weapons trained on the cafe. Mr. Abbott described the siege as “a very disturbing incident.”
“A police operation is underway,” a police spokeswoman said. “It involves both local police and tactical or specialist police commands.” Fire crew and other emergency services have been sent to the central business district and helicopters could be seen and heard flying over the city. “Our thoughts and prayers must, above all, go out to the individuals who are caught up in this,” he said. “I can think of almost nothing more distressing or terrifying than to be caught up in such a situation. Our hearts go out to those people.”
Police would not provide further details as the siege unfolded. But live television footage showed shoppers and office workers gathered some distance from the cafe, behind shelters, and television news showed heavily armed police officers in the area. He said he met with the National Security Committee of cabinet, which includes the defense minister, David Johnston, and Attorney General George Brandis.
A cafe worker told the Australian Broadcasting Corportation that he tried to enter the cafe at around 9:45 a.m., but found the doors locked and he saw people inside sitting down. The police arrived shortly after, he said. A police spokesman confirmed that officers were called to the Lindt Chocolate Café, in Sydney’s Martin Place, a major shopping and pedestrian thoroughfare, at around 10 a.m.
Major offices within the vicinity have been evacuated or placed in shut down, including the country’s Reserve Bank, in Martin Place. Three of Australia’s biggest banks have offices in Martin Place, or within walking distance of the pedestrian mall, and the state’s Parliament, and some law courts are close by. A commercial television network, Channel Seven, which has a studio located nearby the cafe, showed footage of people wearing Lindt uniforms inside the cafe.
The police said in a statement that they were attempting to contact those inside the cafe. Nearby offices had been evacuated and a number of streets closed, it said. The police also asked that people in offices bordering Martin Place “remain indoors and away from open windows.”
The police have shut down parts of the city’s transportation system, and closed off the mall area. They would not confirm how many people were being held hostage inside the cafe, saying that they were “dealing with an armed incident.”
“A police operation is underway,” a spokeswoman for the New South Wales Police Force said. “It involves both local police and tactical or specialist police commands,” which would include an antiterrorism squad.
Fire crew and other emergency services have been sent to the central business district, and helicopters could be seen and heard flying over the city.
The police would not provide further details. But live television footage showed shoppers and office workers gathered some distance from the cafe, behind shelters, and television news showed heavily armed police officers in the area.
The police would not confirm whether a terrorist group or individual with links to terrorism was behind the siege.
But James Brown, a military analyst at the Lowy Institute, said that “Someone in that shop wants us to know they have an Islamic link.”
He added: “They could be doing it for any one of a number of reasons, it could be a terror-related incident. It is unclear what outcome they want.”
Very little was known about the person or people responsible for the siege . Mr. Brown said that it was clear from television footage of officers in the street that the police were heavily armed and wearing protective clothing. “Police are ready for the threat of being shot at,” he said.
The United States Consulate General in Sydney, which is about a block away from the cafe, was evacuated along with other offices in the area. A spokeswoman for the United States Embassy in Canberra, said that American officials did not yet know the nationality of the people being held inside the cafe.