So theres no training behind this. Theres no standard attack in any of this. So, actually, we can see it going any way. But i think the i think the longer it goes on without violence the more likely there wont be any. Welcome back, everybody. Im john vause at the cnn center. Im natalie allen. Thank you for joining us. Weve been here several hours with this breaking news out of australia. And we will continue to bring you the latest now. And wed like to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. Wed like to give you the update now. A gunman is Still Holding an unknown number of people at a lindt coffee shop in sydneys Main Business district. Sky News Australia reports that the Hostage Taker, seen here, is calling himself the brother. He has forced hostages to speak with three Media Outlets over the phone. He apparently has two demands. He wants an isis flag. He also wants a conversation with australias Prime Minister. We also have video of five hostages who managed to get out. We still dont know how they did it. But they got out. That was the first one we saw in the blue jacket. Then the man in the white shirt. And then there was one more that burst out of another door, a door that police arent standing behind. That was about four hours ago. When that happened. And then two women, two workers ran out a short time later still wearing their aprons from the coffee shop. That woman. And then right behind her this one. All five hostages reportedly escaped from the cafe. They were not released. That is the information that we have at least. And they are now of course speaking to police. One was being observed at a hospital. It has been now more than ten hours since the gunman walked into that cafe. A flag with an islamic phrase was held up to the cafes
window. Later hostages were forced to stand at that window with their hands up against it. Australias Prime Minister has spoken about the Hostage Taker. We dont yet know the motivation of the perpetrator. We dont know whether this is politically motivated. Although obviously there are some indications that it could be. We have to appreciate that even in a society such as ours there are people who would wish to do us harm. Well, our anna coren has been with us pretty much from the start of this, and shes now live there in sydney, and youve been describing a lot of things going on today, anna. But the good news is that you havent had to report on anyone getting hurt. And as far as you know, is the situation ongoing, hostages still inside that cafe and no one at this point hurt . Reporter yeah, thats right, natalie. Certainly according to the Deputy Police commissioner. She wants this resolved peacefully. The siege now into its ninth hour. We know that the Hostage Taker, who is armed, has a number of hostages. We still dont have specifics. Its rather frustrating. I have to admit that we dont have the details that we would hope. But certainly police remajor extremely tightlipped. They say they have the situation under control, that they are talking to the gunman, who is armed. We dont know if he just has a gun or if he has explosives or bombs. But certainly the cbd, the Central Business district of the city here in sydney, has been evacuated. All those buildings. The banks. The law courts. The Commercial Area has been evacuated. And there was a stream of people leaving the officers, telling me
that authorities have told them to keep away from the window. They were kept in their building for hours until police could get to them and get them out safely. But certainly now we know that five hostages have managed to get away from the cafe. Still here on the ground we dont know if they escaped or if they were released. But certainly according to the Police Commissioner, the Deputy Police commissioner, catherine burn, she wants this resolved peacefully. And if this is going to go into the night, and now its gone, 7 00 p. M. Local time, then they are prepared to do that. They dont want there to be any bloodshed and any violence. So anna, you and i, both stranl australians, weve both reported in australia. Never before has there been anything like this on the australian mainland. We had the bali bombing in 2002. This is an unprecedented situation. How are people reacting to it . Because its been going on for a number of hours now. Were getting a lot more information. Is it all starting to sink in . Reporter yeah, definitely. And i think youre absolutely right. Australias real taste of terrorism back in 2002, when 88 australians were killed in bali, we havent had anything like that since then. And really for this to be taking place now, still obviously these gunmen wanting an isis flag, holding up, or forcing these hostages to hold up a sign in arabic writing, it would certainly suggest that he is a sympathizer of islamic extremists, but we dont know that for sure. But yes, its startling for people here. Talking to tourists, talking to people who live, who work here, they say it is seriously offputting, its scary. They are fearful that there
could be other people out there who want to harm australians, who want to harm our way of life. Which is a very open society. A tolerant and democratic society, an open society. We know that there are people here in this country who have ties to isis, who are sympathizers of isis. We know that there are 100 citizens who go on and join the fight in iraq and syria and that there are many people still here who are supporters of those fighters. Certainly australia became a target for them ever since they got involved in this fight against isis. We know we have hundreds of troops helping out, you know, advising and training the peshmerga, the kurdish forces, the iraqi forces on the ground there. And certainly, you know, fighter jets, part of the air campaign that is aggressively attacking isis. So australia very much a target. But certainly we havent seen
anything like this on our home soil. Yes, im curious, anna, this is natalie. What is that all around you . Were seeing a long line of police cars, ambulances. Kind of describe the situation that youre seeing around you. Reporter for sure. So just to give you an idea, were about a block from where that cafe is, the lindt cafe. And along here, this is mcquarry street, all these ambulances are parked. Theyve been coming here over the past several hours, obviously on standby in case the situation turns violent, turns ugly. We havent seen any sign the five hostages who have managed to get away. We know that theyre with police. There are hundreds of police in the area. But certainly this area is cordoned off. We cannot go any further. We were closer to the cafe. We had a visual of the cafe several hours ago, but police have since moved us on. I am now here with all the rest of the media. Australian media and also international media. Theres a huge contingency of media here now focuses very much on this story and what it means. For australia and the threat of course of terrorism. And as its emerged what the gbman demandsr the two demands, he wants an isis flage also wants to talk to the australian Prime Minister tony abbott, the authorities there have been reluctant to release that information. Why is that . It seems kind of benign really in the scheme of things. So why was there concern that this information was getting out there . Reporter yeah, it does seem very strange, and its certainly frustrating for us in the media trying to disseminate information to the public, to not have access to that, to not know how many hostages are still
in the building, to not know if its only one gunman or if there are more involved. Police have been extremely tightlipped. That is the way that Australian Authorities operate. It always has been that way, as you would know, john, having reported here in australia for many years. It just is the culture. They want to contain it. They want to focus on resolving this situation. They dont want the media involved. We have to remember that that gunman you would have to presume chose that site. It was located opposite the 7 Network Australia. Perfect Vantage Point to get the worlds attention. So clearly he had an objective. Now his demands, they seem a bit bizarre. They seem very strange, that he now wants an isis flag and he wants a Phone Conversation with the australian Prime Minister tony abbott. But certainly i think what we can assure you is that negotiators are talking to him, hoping that the situation will be resolved peacefully. Okay. All right. Anna coren for us there in
sydney. We thank you again. And its interesting, isnt it, john, that police arent saying much at all, but this man, whoever he is, has reached out to the media and maybe this is the point. Sorry. Didnt mean to interrupt. But maybe this is the point, that the police dont want him getting his message out and theyve managed to stop him at every turn. He contacted a Radio Station, two tv stations, and its only now, nine hours into this that really his demands, his message is actually getting out there. Well, hopefully they do have a plan, theyre working on this to figure out how to bring it to a successful conclusion. But so far, again, no one has been hurt. So thank goodness for that. We want to talk now on the phone with tiffany gender. Shes a Police Reporter with 2gb radio. Several of the hostages called into that Radio Station. So tiffany, what more can you add as far as what these hostages were relaying . What was their demeanor . What information did they give you about their situation . Well, basically, that line of communication opened up quite early is this morning. One of the men from inside the building, the lindt cafe, actually called one of our announcers on air, and they took a conversation off air. It was decided it was not really appropriate for that conversation to be going on air, a lot of sensitive information. And basically, it was identified that he was a hostage inside and that he wanted to speak to Prime Minister tony abbott live on air, a live onair interview. Now, of course that demand was not met. Negotiators have been to that 2gb Radio Station all day. Weve been fielding a lot of calls from people inside the building, from Family Members of people inside the building. Who are just listening to this ordeal i guess play out on the radio. So lets get this straight. So people inside that cafe, inside that coffee shop, have had the ability to get on their cell phones and just call in
whenever they want . Thats exactly right. Many of them have been on social media. One hostage in particular has posted a very horrifying message on social media with a list of the demands. And they have also been texting family and friends from the inside to say look, i am inside, i am okay at the moment, these are the demands, and if theyre not met, you know, threats to kill and, you know, some other very horrible threats have been made against the group. Interesting, isnt it, that this gunman didnt take their phones away. Theyre sitting there texting whomever they want, it seems, and presumably they could reach out to the police or be texting with the police. We just dont know, do we . Youre right. It is bizarre. This whole thing is playing out on facebook, twitter, you know, through radio announcers. It is a very bizarre situation. And police have actually
mobilized a Special Task Force which is only mobilized during an act of terrorism. So basically, that allows i guess mobilizes the huge amount of resources that they have. It allows police to share more information with authorities, with azo and the federal government. Police have just held a Press Conference and have said they are actively trolling through facebook and twitter to get information, you know. A lot of these the hostages are Posting Information on their facebook pages. That is one avenue that police are actually getting their information from. I guess the assumption could be this is a deliberate ploy maybe this gunman has taken to get the word out because what weve been talking about for many, many hours now is what they want here is publicity. They want the megaphone so they can have their voice heard, their demands met. And one lady much like the 9 11 hijackers allowed the people on the plane to call their loved ones to tell them the plane had been hijacked. They werent worried about that because they knew the plane was going to crash. So in a similar way this guy with the gun is letting people get this same horrific message out. Thats exactly right. And that is fueling the fear and that is fueling their message. And Police Actually asked us to stop reporting those demands because it is really fueling hysteria and it is putting their message out there. And that was their objective. And what more have you been able to learn about the gunman, tiffiny, through these conversations . As your reporter mentioned earlier, police are keeping very tightlipped on the operational information. They have not even been able to confirm how many hostages are
inside. From what i understand personally, and thats speaking to sources, that police know who the gunmans they know who theyre dealing with and they are aware of his identity. But as far as any publicly released details about that gunman, nothing is being released. Well, we can understand that because now at least we know they know who theyre dealing with and theyve got a tactic to try to figure out how to deal with this person. But it is really bizarre that hostages are sitting there posting pictures making Telephone Calls and posting on social media. Tiffiny gender the Police Reporter with radio 2gb giving us some very valuable information about what has actually been happening there all day long. She works at the same Radio Station as ray hadley. He has spoken to the suspect as well via at least one of the hostages, a 23yearold man who actually managed to call on his cell phone into rays radio show, and a short time ago we spoke with ray. Ive just come off a ninehour shift. I normally do nine till midday. And we kept going because i made contact with the hostages. They found my program. Obviously i didnt want to put them to air, so i took their calls off air. And at the same time could hear the Hostage Taker giving the young man who spoke to me, a 23yearold, instructions on what he wanted to do. Whats now been revealed by your reporter and others, that he wanted the i. C. E. Flag, he wanted a conversation with the Prime Minister or hed start to dispose of hostages. I spoke to our Police Commissioner, our police chief, the equivalent here in New South Wales where sydney is the capital, and spoke to him, spoke to our premier, which is a bit like your governor. And they told me off air it would be best if we didnt report those matters. I kept in contact with the young man. He gave me his mobile. And we had four conversations off air. Between about midday and 3 00. And then i felt troubled by his tone. So i asked the police to supply me with a negotiator. I didnt feel equipped to keep talking with him because im not a trained negotiator. Im a radio broadcaster. So the negotiator arrived here and i went off air about 20 minutes ago, about quarter past 6 00 at night our time on monday night, and the negotiators are still dealing with him. As youve been told, five people have escaped. They werent released. Three gentlemen, one of them a worker from inside the lindt cafe, and then two young ladies who are also workers escaped as well. And Police Continue their negotiations. Theyre dealing with a lunatic. Theyre dealing way person whos making outrageous claims. He wants to be he wants the government to acknowledge that this is a terrorist operation, that hes doing this on behalf of isis or isil. And the government at this particular stage are treating terrorists as youd treat any terrorist in any part of the world, theyre doing their best to secure the safety of the hostages without meeting his demands. Just explain how the process works. You got this phone call from this 23yearold man, this hostage which was being who
was being held inside the cafe there. And then he relayed what the guy with the gun was saying. He told you and you responded and he said it to the gunman . I could hear the gunman. Well, first of all, we were a bit skeptical, as you would be, getting a phone call to your open line saying im a hostage. Can i talk to ray on air. And so i made an editorial decision that i wouldnt talk to him on air because i was fearful that i may have been duped or that i might put people at risk. So i came off air during a threeminute Commercial Break and spoke to the young man. I thn rang him back and confirmed he was in fact a hostage. I spoke to police and they had a list of some hostages and his name was one of the hostages. His name was given to me by the young man. I was talking to him and in the background i could hear the Hostage Taker issue instructions about wanting to talk to the Prime Minister, calling me a scumbag, calling the media generally scumbags for incorrectly reporting isil as
being a group of people who are murderous bastards who have no regard for human life. So i heard all this in the background. I went back on air. I didnt report what id been told. I just said i had a phone call from a hostage and i contacted police which i did do. Then he called me again and left his numbers and asked me to call him. I went to a news break and rang him again 37 this happened three times. And as i say, at the end of three or four conversation