Grenades and gunfire gripped Sydney as the tense hostage situation at the Lindt Chocolate cafe ended after 17 long hours.
Two hostages who have been killed in the 17-hour-long hostage drama at a cafeteria in Sydney were identified as the manager of the Lindt Chocolate cafe and a lawyer. The 38-year-old lawyer, Katrina Dawson, was a mother of three young children who became the victim of the siege. She was a barrister at Selbourne Chambers and was married to Paul Smith, a partner at Mallesons.
Australian police on Thursday made a series of arrests in a counter-terrorism operation after intelligence reports that the Islamic State supporters were planning a public execution in the country, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.
Two victims of the deadly Sydney siege were remembered on Tuesday by tearful mourners at private memorial services here, a week after a gunman held them hostage inside a downtown cafe in Australia.
Iranian-born Islamic State sympathiser Man Haron Monis began to doze off in the early hours of Tuesday when the hostages decided to escape together and on realising this he opened fire, according to a media report.
No decision yet on the fate of the Sydney Test, which starts December 26, but for us the tour is still on, says the Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary, Sanjay Patel.
Several people, including an Indian techie, were taken hostage by an armed man at a popular caf in Sydney and forced to display an Islamic flag, triggering a security alert in Australia and leading to evacuation of key buildings, including the Indian Consulate.
A 17-hour-long hostage drama in which a lone heavily-armed man of Iranian-origin held 17 people hostage at a cafe in central Sydney ended late Monday night (Indian Standard Time) with the police storming it, resulting in three deaths.
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