استرالية طابخ السم آكله
5 People Exit Sydney Café, Hostage Standoff May Take Time
Al-Manar
15-12-2014 - 10:26
A police spokesperson in Sydney said "it might take a bit of time" to resolve a situation in which an armed gunman has taken hostages at a downtown cafe.
Catherine Burn, the deputy commissioner of New South Wales Police, said nine hours into the standoff that the goal was to resolve the standoff peacefully even if it took throughout the night.
Live television footage broadcast soon after the incident occurred showed patrons inside the Lindt Chocolate Café in Martin Place in Australia's largest city standing with their hands pressed against the windows. A black-and-white flag similar to those used by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group was also visible.
The attack occurred at about 9:44 a.m. local time, police said. About five hours into the drama, three people emerged from the building, with two in cafe aprons leaving the cafe about an hour later.
It was unclear if the release of the five had been negotiated or of their own volition.
Police would not say how many people remained inside the cafe, and said there was no information indicating that anyone inside the cafe had been harmed.
Burn said the number of hostages wasn't as high as 30, which had been an estimated figure reported earlier in the standoff.
She would not speculate as to a motive nor comment on social media posts allegedly from people inside the cafe, which detailed some of the gunman's demands.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott earlier urged for calm, and said Australians not in the affected area should go about their daily business.
In a video statement later in the day, he praised the police response to the "disturbing incident."
"It is profoundly shocking that innocent people should be held hostage by an armed person claiming political motivation," Abbott said, without getting into specifics about who might be behind the attack.
Meanwhile, French police dismantles Islamist network sending fighters to Syria, Iraq and
Saudi policeman killed by hostage-taker in Riyadh
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