Gunman, 2 hostages killed as cops storm Sydney cafe to end 16-hour siege

Sydney: Amid a barrage of gunfire, police stormed a cafe in the heart of Sydney early on Tuesday to end a 16-hour hostage siege by an Iranian-born gunman. Police said three people were killed — the gunman and two of the hostages — and four others were wounded.

Police raided the Lindt Chocolat Cafe after they heard a number of gunshots from inside, said New South Wales state police commissioner Andrew Scipione.

"They made the call because they believed that at that time, if they didn't enter, there would have been many more lives lost," he said.

The gunman was identified as Man Haron Monis, who once was prosecuted for sending offensive letters to families of Australian troops killed in Afghanistan.

Scipione wouldn't say whether the two hostages who were killed — a 34-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman — were caught in crossfire, or shot by the gunman.

One of the victims was Sydney lawyer and mother-of-three Katrina Dawson. "Katrina was one of our best and brightest barristers who will be greatly missed by her colleagues and friends" Jane Needham, president of the New South Wales Bar Association, said in a statement. The other victim was identified in Australian media as the manager of the cafe, Tori Johnson.

Among the four wounded was a police officer shot in the face.

"Until we were involved in this emergency action, we believe that no one had been injured. That changed. We changed our tactic," he said, adding that there had been a total of 17 hostages taken in the cafe when the siege began.

The standoff ended when a loud bang was heard from the cafe and five people ran out. Shortly after, police swooped in, amid heavy gunfire, shouts and flashes. A police bomb disposal robot also was sent into the building, but no explosives were found.

Police said an investigation is underway because police were involved in an incident in which people died.

Local media identified the gunman as 50-year-old Monis, and a police official confirmed his identity. Under department rules, officials do not identify themselves unless speaking at a formal news conference.

Monis has long been on officials' radar. Last year, he was sentenced to 300 hours of community service for using the postal service to send what a judge called "grossly offensive" letters to families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2009.

At the time, Monis said his letters were "flowers of advice," adding: "Always, I stand behind my beliefs."

He was later charged with being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. Earlier this year, he was charged with the sexual assault of a woman in 2002. He has been out on bail on the charges.

"This is a one-off random individual. It's not a concerted terrorism event or act. It's a damaged goods individual who's done something outrageous," his former lawyer, Manny Conditsis, told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"His ideology is just so strong and so powerful that it clouds his vision for common sense and objectiveness," Conditsis said.

"This is a very disturbing incident," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said. "It is profoundly shocking that innocent people should be held hostage by an armed person claiming political motivation."

Lindt Australia thanked the public for its support.

"We are deeply concerned over this serious incident and our thoughts and prayers are with the staff and customers involved and all their friends and families," the company wrote in a Facebook post.

Australia's government raised the country's terror warning level in September in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State group. Counterterror law enforcement teams later conducted dozens of raids and made several arrests in Australia's three largest cities _ Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. One man arrested during a series of raids in Sydney was charged with conspiring with an Islamic State leader in Syria to behead a random person in downtown Sydney.

The Islamic State group, which now holds a third of Syria and Iraq, has threatened Australia in the past. In September, Islamic State group spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani issued an audio message urging so-called ``lone wolf'' attacks abroad, specifically mentioning Australia. Al-Adnani told Muslims to kill all "disbelievers," whether they be civilians or soldiers.

One terrorism expert said the situation appeared to be that of a "lone wolf" making his own demands, rather than an attack orchestrated by a foreign jihadist group.

"There haven't been statements from overseas linking this to extremist groups outside the country _ that is quite positive," said Charles Knight, lecturer in the department of policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism at Australia's Macquarie University. "The individual or individuals involved didn't kill early, which is part of the pattern of some recent international attacks. ... It seems to be shifting more into the model of a traditional hostage situation, rather than the sort of brutal attacks we've seen overseas."