Hostages seen running from cafe under seige

A hostage runs towards a police officer outside Lindt cafe, where other hostages are being held, in Martin Place in central Sydney December 15, 2014. Two more hostages have run out of the cafe at the center of a siege in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, according to a Reuters witness at the site. The two women were both wearing aprons indicating they were staff at the Lindt cafe where a gunman has been holding an unknown number of hostages for several hours. Three men had earlier run out of the cafe. REUTERS/Jason Reed (AUSTRALIA – Tags: CRIME LAW TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

An armed assailant was holding an unknown number of hostages in a central Sydney cafe on Monday, shutting down Australia’s largest city and raising fears it could be an attack by Islamist militant sympathisers.

Six hours after the mid-morning siege began, television showed three hostages running out of the Lindt chocolate cafe and sheltering behind a heavily armed, black-clad SWAT team.

Police said it was not known exactly how many more hostages remained in the cafe but it was not as high as the 30-40 that had been reported earlier.

The remaining hostages were being held by at least one armed assailant, police said, but did not rule out that others could be involved.

Reuters

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