'Third Death' After Police Storm Sydney Cafe
Hostage-taker Sheikh Man Haron Monis is reportedly shot dead by police after killing one person during a siege at a Sydney cafe.
A third person has reportedly died after police stormed a Sydney cafe, ending a 16-hour siege in the city's central business district.
Gunman Sheikh Man Haron Monis is believed to have been killed after heavily-armed officers threw flash grenades into the Martin Place cafe before raiding the premises.
Channel Nine reported that the 49-year-old gunman killed one of the hostages before police swooped.
A second hostage is also reported to have died, according to The Daily Telegraph.
In dramatic scenes at the Lindt cafe, at least five panicked hostages escaped from the building in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Police then swooped on the gunman. A series of loud explosions were heard at the scene before glass shattered onto the pavement from a nearby window.
Two women, believed to have been hostages, have been taken to Royal North Shore Hospital for treatment.
"We have a woman in her 40s... she came in first, she has a gunshot wound to the leg and she is in a serious but stable condition," a hospital spokeswoman said.
A 39-year-old police officer is also being treated for a gunshot graze to the cheek, while a 30-year-old woman has also been brought from Martin Place and is in a stable condition.
The nature of her injuries is not known, although she was not shot, the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst confirmed one man was delivered to the hospital earlier in the siege.
He was one of the first hostages to escape from the cafe, and remains in a "satisfactory" condition.
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Television footage also showed a woman on a stretcher being taken into Royal Prince Alfred hospital.
Paramedics appeared to be treating her with breathing apparatus. Her condition is not known.
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Alarms rang in the street as more police officers and ambulance crews were sent into the cafe, where a gunman held up to 20 hostages in a 16-hour siege.
After the hostages escaped and police entered the cafe, a bomb-disposal robot approached the doorway.
Police have confirmed that the siege has now ended.
The gunman has been named as Sheikh Man Haron Monis, who is notorious in Australia for sending abusive letters to family members of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
The siege began at 10am local time when Monis - who was previously known to both Sydney police and media - entered the cafe in Martin Place carrying a pump-action shotgun.
Hostages were seen holding a black flag with white Arabic text similar to those displayed by the Islamic State group.
Footage showed Monis apparently using one hostage as a human shield.
Monis operated a website which was taken down shortly after he was named as the hostage-taker in the media.
In a letter on the site, which he signed Sheikh Haron, he accused the US, Britain and Australia of "oppression and terrorism" alongside images of dead children.
http://news.sky.com/story/1392304/third-death-after-police-storm-sydney-cafe
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