Police officials identified the hostage-taker as Man Haron Monis, a self-proclaimed sheikh with a criminal record. Credit Dean Lewins/European Pressphoto Agency
Heavily armed police in Sydney stormed a cafe early Tuesday where an armed self-proclaimed sheikh had held hostages for more than 16 hours. report NYT
Live television footage at the scene showed intense flashes of gunfire and the sound of loud ammunition rounds fired. Police were racing into the building with weapons drawn.
Just before police appeared to enter the building at least six hostages were seen running from the cafe.
Earlier, the police confirmed that the hostage-taker was Man Haron Monis, a man with a criminal record who called himself Sheikh Haron. Australian media reports quoted the man’s former lawyer as saying he was acting alone. But it was unclear whether the gunman had accomplices.
Five people, including two cafe employees, had fled by 7 p.m. Monday, but it was not clear whether the assailant had allowed them to leave or they had escaped.
Helicopters hovered over the city, the train network was temporarily stopped and strategic buildings — including the nearby Sydney Opera House, the New South Wales Parliament, the state library, law courts and the Reserve Bank — were evacuated or shut down. Traffic was stopped on part of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
According to The Age, a national newspaper, Mr. Monis was free on bail in two separate criminal cases. He was charged in November 2013 with being an accessory before and after the fact in the murder of his ex-wife, Noleen Hayson Pal, who was stabbed and set on fire in an apartment in Werrington.