gunman chose it in order to get the maximum impact and cover annual of this? it seems to be a central location in sidney, 4.5 million people. it s near the u.s. consulate. we do not believe there were any members and the consulate says they will be accounted for t. police are obviously building a big perimeter around. so they must feel they are dealing with something significant inside and obviously having these hostages for the better part of the day is significant. tiffany genders in sydney, a bbc radio. a local radio personality says he believes he had contact with someone who is a hostage. he heard the gunman, there is a lot of criticism directed towards the media and misrepresentations of what isis is, yet another indication of this man, where his sympathies lie. what do you know? reporter: it is a bizarre aspect of this siege.
location specifically so he could get maximum coverage from we have been hearing a lot of reporting this morning, let s try and clarify, we will be leaving a live picture up. you will always be able to to see what s going on in sydney. there is a box right there. an far, there were some rumors, the flag we believe is called the shadada, there is one god, he is asking for a proper isis flag. this of a bomb. have you heard any speculation with the bag, is there anything to that? reporter: certainly, when we arrived much earlier today, there was speculation that perhaps there were bombs planted around the city. we heard from the prime minister saying the public must look out for suspicious bags. the reason being down in sydney house earlier today, there was a suspicious parcel found.
in. yeah, police are taking them extremely seriously. there is a bomb squad on location as we speak. they have been there since the get-go. and, obviously, there were those calls for the public to remain extremely vigilant and to report any suspect parcels or backpacks, that is what sparked off what happened at the sydney opera house earlier today, but, yet, as i say, the prime minister making those calls as well as police authorities telling australians to remain vigilant. the last time that australians experienced terrorism with the bali bombings in 2002, in which 88 centralians were killeaustra killed, on tv, our troops being committed toward overseas, we have never experienced this here