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 manag
by doing that. but there s a little bit of detail about what can be seen at this time in the siege. that was before they evacuated the network and well, actually, what they have done is i think the timing on that is that they did evacuate the network and the police took over that building because it is line of sight directly across from the coffee shop. chris mentioned right at the end they did allow them back in to make that report. i see. but hundreds of people who work at channel 7 in that building. most of those people, pretty much all of them had in fact been evacuated. we saw earlier tonight we were broadcasting from their melbourne studios because they had to leave their sydney studios. and they were the first network to give us these pictures you re seeing here of people in the windows and also of the suspected gunman. reporter glenn conley describes what he saw. reporter: our camera was trained on the front door of the lindt cafe, and we had quite a long lens on
the terror in their eyes as they reached the moment of safety was something unforgettable. certainly agree with that. glenn conley there with channel 7 australia giving? good details of what happened in the last couple hours or so. and you ve been saying, and anna coren is from australia as well, our reporter there, that this is the first time australia has seen a hostage situation like this. it s the terrorism dimension as well which makes this so different. earlier we heard from david mallen, associate director of the melbourne school of government. he told us the government has been ramping up security in the country for quite some time. here he is. it has been a very big concern for the past few months. at least for the government. i m not sure it s been the case for the general public. there was a planned attack in the same part of sydney martin place a couple months ago. it led haveto very tough anti-stror laws being passed. tougher in some ways than in the u.s. you c