December 16, 2014, 5:30 am
Three people are dead and four others
gravely injured after police stormed the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in
Sydney's CBD to end a 17-hour siege.
Police and paramedics tried desperately to save hostages wounded during the violent final moments of the 17-hour operation.
The gunman was attempting to shepherd hostages from one side of the café to the other, when a small group broke away and ran for the exit, Reason said.
One man with his hands raised ran towards police and threw himself on to the pavement where he was quickly searched by two police, before being helped away.
Six minutes later, a group of five hostages ran from the Martin Place exit, fleeing to safety.
It was unclear exactly what prompted the rapid escalation, but it was reported gunman Man Haron Monis fired his shotgun.
Reason said a call came from police communications that there was a “hostage down”, prompting the officers to storm the building without warning.
Percussion grenades designed to create loud flashes and bangs and disorient their targets, were tossed into the room. They lit up the windows where the hostages had been forced to hold an Islamist flag in the first hours of the siege.
As police stormed the building, gunshots rang out and officers equipped with night vision goggles filed into the room from two entrances.
The two groups of police converged on the gunman, who was believed to have been killed in the firefight.
Dozens of police then ran to help hostages as they fled the smoke-filled room.
One woman, shoeless and injured was carried away by two police officers.
Ambulance officers, who had been on standby inside the exclusion zone, sprinted toward the building with stretchers, and took at least five people away, working on them as they ran back to waiting ambulances.
A number of stretchers were wheeled into the building, however, it was unclear how many people may have been injured.
The gunman was earlier named as 'Sheikh' Man Monis.
Monis is infamous for sending hate mail to the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
The letters were highly offensive, comparing the fallen soldiers to pigs.
Charged with using the postal service to harass and offend, he claimed to be a peace activist, chaining himself to the courthouse steps at one point.
He was sentenced to community service, and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond.
Monis was born in Iran; he is aged around 50 and came to Australia as a refugee in 1996.
Apart from the letter-writing campaign, he's also been implicated in murder.
He was charged last year with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, who was stabbed and set alight in a stairwell.
This year he was charged with the sexual assault of a young woman who had gone to him for so-called 'spiritual healing'.
He's currently on bail.
Monis plunged Sydney into lockdown chaos after taking control of a Lindt cafe in Martin Place.
Several prominent buildings were shut down in and around the area, where an undisclosed number of people have been held hostage in a Lindt Cafe since Monday morning.
The faces of customers and workers were pressed up against a shop window of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe.
They had their hands in the air and their eyes closed. And were made to hold up what is believed to be an Islamic State flag.
The 7News Sydney newsroom, which faces the cafe under siege, had been evacuated by police.
An Islamic flag - black with white writing on it - has been held up to the glass.
In a chilling drama unfolding in the city centre, Martin Place was shut down and scores of police are surrounded the cafe.
Trains between Central Station and Bondi Junction station were stopped while buses were diverted away from the area.
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