Posted on 12/14/2014 3:37:33 PM PST by naturalman1975
A hostage has been forced to hold up an Islamic State flag in the window of a shop in Martin Place that is currently under siege.
It is believed there are 12 hostages in the store and an ISIS flag has been placed in the window.
Martin Place is the main financial area of the Sydney CBD.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com.au ...
Breaking..... police just confirmed to media. Armed men keeping hostage in apartment....Details minimal... but reports from Ghent, Belgium suggest that four armed men have stormed a Hostel.
more...via AP.....GHENT, BELGIUM — Four armed men have entered an apartment in the western Belgian city of Ghent, and police have blocked off a wide perimeter around the area.
Police said Monday that two hours in it was still unclear what the intention was, and there was no information available either about the armed men who entered the apartment block or whether they had taken hostages.
By midmorning a big police operation had been set up in the working-class neighborhood to keep bystanders away from the scene.
Oh man! Not good!
Police have confirmed...
Ap is also reporting and others...
Yeah, just Googled it and there are several articles listed.
I gather those two photos are from Belgium. Not much info about it at the sites I just checked.
I hope the situation in Sydney hasn’t made others decide to pull the same thing elsewhere.
That’s what I was thinking...either a bunch of sleeper cells that have been waiting for a signal...or just some lone wolfs taking advantage of the situation.
Going to be an interesting day...
local people in Gent reporting helicopters still in the sky and more police arriving.
Could be copycats by radicals who are loosely associated with ISIS.
STATE PROSECUTION SERVICE SAYS NO IMMEDIATE INDICATION OF LINK TO TERRORISM in Belgium Hostage event.....time will tell.
It may be why they decided to do it now.
ABC talking about it now. Very little info coming out about it. No idea what the thugs want or if it’s connected to Sydney.
Why Belgium though...do they have peacekeeping troops in Iraq?
That may be a true statement, but sounds like a PC response.
Yeah, it could be either one.
It’s going to be hard to go to sleep, which I need to do soon, not knowing what news will be waiting when I wake up. Sydney seems prepared for a worst-case scenario with all the ambulances and fire trucks lined up along one of the streets. I hope they aren’t needed.
And I hope there aren’t any other hostage takings.
It is the second time in six weeks time there has been hostage situation in the town...On October 23, a man was taken hostage on the top floor of an apartment building at Charles de Kerchovelaan.
Back to Sydney Seige.....
Story written...
The gunman flew into a rage when he realised some of his captives had escaped.
‘The gunman could be seen from here getting extremely agitated, shouting at remaining hostages,’ tweeted journalist Chris Reason, who has a direct line of sight into the cafe from the Seven Network newsroom directly opposite and inside the police cordon.
The light inside the building has gone off tonight, Mr Reason said, but police would not reveal whether it was a law enforcement or hostage-taker tactic.
Police negotiators have learned the name of the man and have made contact.
This evening, Mr Reason said he could see the gunman rotating the hostages through positions in the store’s window.
‘From inside Martin Place we can see the faces of hostages - pained, strained, eyes red and raw,’ he recounted. Food and water was also being delivered to the prisoners from the cafe’s back kitchens.
Seven Network staff have counted around 15 hostages in the cafe, he said, rather than the 50 reported by Lindt Australia CEO Steve Loane earlier on Monday.
Daily Mail Australia understands a 25-year-old female fashion industry worker and two female baristas aged in their 30s are among that number.
It doesn’t sound like it’s anywhere close to being resolved since they don’t know why these guys did it. Doesn’t sound like they’ve communicated with anyone yet. So police are piling in to get ready for whatever happens.
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