Hostages taken in Sydney + bomb threat

Woke up and this was in the news. Why no thread yet?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-30473983
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/15/world/...hpt=ias_c1
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...24641.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sydney-cafe-...51?tesla=y

• Hostages being held in a Sydney cafe
  
• Police has surrounded the area
  
• Gunman claims he has 4 bombs hidden around the city
  
• Islamist flag being held by hostages against the window
  
• Gunman demands ISIS flag and wants to speak with the PM of Australia
  

Anybody else in Sydney at the moment too?

Is kinda scary. I wonder what will happen tomorrow.

Been going on for hours now, my parents are glued to the television zzz. Friends had actually gone to the cafe in question a few days ago.

This incident has really highlighted to me how shitty Australian news reporting can be.

Apparently there's now a hostage situation in Europe as well. 4 armed men have 1 man as a hostage in Belgium.
http://bbc.com/news/world-europe-30478231

Coincidence?

A livestream of some police near the cafe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOJWvZt7...freenewsau

My mum was just watching this live, she was crying. What a horrible situation

At least 7 hostages escaped as far as i'm aware.. but pomegranate went down suddenly and very hard.
The seige is over now and people have been taken away on stetchers, but I don't think there has been any confirmation of deaths yet.

EDIT: 2 people dead apparently, including the culprit.
It could have been far worse I suppose.

My mum was just watching this live, she was crying. What a horrible situation

At least 7 hostages escaped as far as i'm aware.. but pomegranate went down suddenly and very hard.
The seige is over now and people have been taken away on stetchers, but I don't think there has been any confirmation of deaths yet.

No confirmed deaths at the moment. Initial reports have said 2 dead, 3 gravely injured. Another has said 3 dead. It does seem likely though at this point that casualties have occured. The authorities here still haven't said anything about casualties as of yet. Simply that they've ended the siege.

Edit: Police have just confirmed 3 dead (including the gunman), 4 injured.

Three dead including the gunman.

Can confirm I'm not letting these plums change my way of life in my wonderful free Country.

Rip to my fellow brother and sister

i find it funny how the police waited till the gunman actually started firing. makes me wonder if the gunman didnt make the first move, would police of done anything at all ?

attacks like these are nothing to be afraid of since they are done by idiots like this man. i had expect more people to die and im still wondering why didnt he just start killing people straight away, just shows how deluded he was thinking he could get w/e he wanted using hostages.

this guy was also on bail when he decided to go hold up the cafe, our legal system is such a joke.

i find it funny how the police waited till the gunman actually started firing. makes me wonder if the gunman didnt make the first move, would police of done anything at all ?

They waited because they hoped to resolve it without shots being fired. Had they gone straight in there would have been far more deaths.

It is possible that had the last hostages to run out stayed, he wouldn't have fired and all would still be alive. Not that I blame them for escaping though.

But yeah, the police knew what they were doing. Police Negotiators are a very important part of the police force.

They waited because they hoped to resolve it without shots being fired. Had they gone straight in there would have been far more deaths.

It is possible that had the last hostages to run out stayed, he wouldn't have fired and all would still be alive. Not that I blame them for escaping though.

But yeah, the police knew what they were doing. Police Negotiators are a very important part of the police force.

the police negotiations just led to no where the guy asked for a is flag and a talk with abbott and refused so what negotiations lol? the only reason why hostages even escaped was cause of the hero Tori Johnson who first tried to grab his gun which led to 5 hostages escaping and his last try he tackled the guy allowing the others to escape and led to the police finally moving in. sadly he died and the other hostage.

police in Australia are absolutely useless when it comes to situations like these they just utterly clueless they need like 30 people to take down a guy with a knife at times when he has a hostage all in heavy combat gear which is a joke. this guy was an extremist terrorist i doubt there will be a happy resolution unless you are that naive, he would get what he want or not get it at all and you think hes just gonna surrender ? no he will kill everyone. in america they would took him out with a sniper easy but in Aus no cause they are that useless.

/rant

the police negotiations just led to no where the guy asked for a is flag and a talk with abbott and refused so what negotiations lol? the only reason why hostages even escaped was cause of the hero Tori Johnson who first tried to grab his gun which led to 5 hostages escaping and his last try he tackled the guy allowing the others to escape and led to the police finally moving in. sadly he died and the other hostage.

police in Australia are absolutely useless when it comes to situations like these they just utterly clueless they need like 30 people to take down a guy with a knife at times when he has a hostage all in heavy combat gear which is a joke. this guy was an extremist terrorist i doubt there will be a happy resolution unless you are that naive, he would get what he want or not get it at all and you think hes just gonna surrender ? no he will kill everyone. in america they would took him out with a sniper easy but in Aus no cause they are that useless.

/garbage

Holy crap you are so dense. Stop assuming so much bullsh'it, this isn't f'ucking call of duty and you can't just run in guns blazing when you don't know where the hostages are.

We don't know the full picture yet and until we do crying out "oh why didnt they just shoot him" only makes you look like an idiot.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-siege-h...28nm6.html

http://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-si...28csz.html

Holy crap you are so dense. Stop assuming so much bullsh'it, this isn't f'ucking call of duty and you can't just run in guns blazing when you don't know where the hostages are.

We don't know the full picture yet and until we do crying out "oh why didnt they just shoot him" only makes you look like an idiot.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/sydney-siege-h...28nm6.html

http://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-si...28csz.html

in other countries they woulda taken him out with snipers gg easy but no they use snipers as scouts and the sniper actually see the hostage hero get taken out and does nothing. just says o hostage down window 2. rest of the police like ok lets go in now that hes shot someone YOLO. and the way they move in is just hilarious one police guy randomly throws a flash bang rest hugging the door. funny as hell never seen such useless police who supposidly trained for stuff like this. more like getting paid with our tax payers money for nothing.

the full picture is Tori Johnson is a hero he saved all the hostages and the police did nothing.

in other countries they woulda taken him out with snipers gg easy but no they use snipers as scouts and the sniper actually see the hostage hero get taken out and does nothing. just says o hostage down window 2. rest of the police like ok lets go in now that hes shot someone YOLO. and the way they move in is just hilarious one police guy randomly throws a flash bang rest hugging the door. funny as hell never seen such useless police who supposidly trained for stuff like this. more like getting paid with our tax payers money for nothing.

the full picture is Tori Johnson is a hero he saved all the hostages and the police did nothing.

Holy pineapple are you for real?

Shut your fucking mouth and go back to COD.

I'm sure the next time someone with 10+ hostages claims he has bombs while he's using a human shield, they'll just shoot him immediately and hope he was lying and has no accomplices.

I mean, even if he does have a bomb, he's just going to kill all those people anyways, so why bother trying to save them.

Holy pineapple are you for real?

Shut your fucking mouth and go back to COD.

i dont even play cod and thats unrealistic compared to this situation. snipers irl can easily take him out by a professional even through glass and no i wont be silenced cause you have different views to me i have the right to say what i feel. thx

I would've thought the ideal situation of a (and the reason for) hostage negotiation is to not bear any casualties whether it be the hostage(s) or the criminal. Specifically for this case it was probably important that they understood whether he was a lone wolf or actually connected to a terrorist group.

As per any negotiation you would make in business, the aim is to give less for more. Accepting any of his humble demands would have created openings for more and the police were pretty good at staying adamant in regards to this.

I agree, the outcome of the whole thing was obviously not ideal with three deaths including the criminal but I would give credit for the police to be patient and careful in assessing the risks. I won't speak for all, but most Australians love their peace and armed intervention should be a last resort. I certainly do not want a false and care-free 'SWAT-ting' due to a prank call happening in Australia.

I don't know if anyone felt the same.. but I was rather amazed at the media control that was in place during the police operation.

i dont even play cod and thats unrealistic compared to this situation. snipers irl can easily take him out by a professional even through glass and no i wont be silenced cause you have different views to me i have the right to say what i feel. thx

Ok i'll explain it really simply for you.
Let's say this guy had an accomplice, this is very often the case in these kind of situations, and let's factor in the threat of bombs.
Let's say you shoot him with a sniper simply because you can and the accomplice just triggers the bomb, good job, you just killed everyone. What a brilliantly executed plan.

Ok i'll explain it really simply for you.
Let's say this guy had an accomplice, this is very often the case in these kind of situations, and let's factor in the threat of bombs.
Let's say you shoot him with a sniper simply because you can and the accomplice just triggers the bomb, good job, you just killed everyone. What a brilliantly executed plan.

you forget the main point. these are extremist terrorists they would kill everyone in the end eventually. you think they just gonna get what they want and surrender ? this guy adored IS and you know what they do ? kill people.

you forget the main point. these are extremist terrorists they would kill everyone in the end eventually. you think they just gonna get what they want and surrender ? this guy adored IS and you know what they do ? kill people.

note the bold. according to you, everyone would have died anyways, so the police only having 2 deaths is quite the good record if you ask me.