Breaking News: Sydney Hostage has Ended as police storm cafe with guns and stun grenades as terrified hostages run for their lives

Dramatic end to a siege lasting more than 16 hours as police stormed the café firing automatic weapons and lobbing stun grenades in central Sydney early on Tuesday where a gunman had been holding more than a dozen hostages. Nine News reported that eleven hostages had been accounted for after the police raid, which occurred shortly after 2am

 

There were reports that two people were killed and at least three others were injured, but this could not immediately be confirmed.

 

Live television coverage showed at least two people being taken away from the scene on stretchers. One hostage was seen being carried out of the building. She appeared to be in pain, and blood flowed down her legs.

 

 

A scene of pandemonium erupted in the early morning just minutes after hostages started emerging from the cafe. This appeared to be the trigger for tactical police to move in. Within seconds, they had blasted open the cafe door and opened fire with automatic weapons, also hurling what appeared to be stun grenades. The sounds of explosions echoed through the city, and the flashes of rifle fire and the grenades lit up the area.

The gunfight lasted less than two minutes, and more hostages appeared to emerge after the police raid.

 

As the scene calmed down, a bomb disposal robot was seen entering the cafe. 

The dramatic end to the siege came as the gunman holding the remaining captives was revealed as a self-proclaimed Islamic cleric Man Haron Monis.

                                                    Haron Monis
Monis is a 49-year-old man living in southwest Sydney, but is originally from Iran and a self-proclaimed sheik, and also sent hate mail to the families of Australian dead soldiers between 2007 and 2009, according to The Daily Telegraph.

 

The seige in the Lindt cafe in Martin Place on Monday follows an unsuccessful attempt to have these charges overturned in the High Court on Friday, The Age reported.. Monis received 300 community service hours and a two-year good behaviour bond for the correspondence, which he claims were his version of sympathy cards, sent with the help from his girlfriend Amirah Droudis.