Hostage Crisis in Australia

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BBC: 3 hostages have escaped, including an employee!

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No doubt Abbott will milk this for all its worth.

Calm down. At least have the decency to wait until it's over.

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No doubt Abbott will milk this for all its worth.

Calm down. At least have the decency to wait until it's over.

Because you think Abbott will wait?

If has any sense of decency whatsoever, he will. Which, as far as I know, he actually has done.

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Also, since when did BBC News have a dedicated "Australia" section? I clicked on it without even noticing before I looked at it.

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It does seem pretty noteworthy that we haven't heard anything from the hostage-takers yet even despite their central location.  They're across the street from a news station and still haven't said anything.

Which is part of the reason why they think it might have been accidental, the suggestions being they might have been planning something publicly in Martin Place itself but were spotted or spooked and ran into the cafe and have holed themselves up.

But again... no one knows.

This map produced by the BBC and shows the number of prominent locations that might suggest some random chocolate store wasn't his intended destination. Something that doesn't prove anything but that I thought might prove informative for those of us unfamiliar with Sydney and where things are in it (myself included):

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And all of a sudden, we know him. He even had a page on Wikipedia. But accessory to murder... oh dear.

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Clearly a horrible situation.

But the media is once again making the same mistakes like in other tragedies such as Columbine, by broadcasting the IS flag in the window.

The Islamo-fascists should not be given a platform and any propaganda should not be published !

The hostage taker was a Shia, so it's safe to say he was not an Islamic State supporter.

Not quite. The article I posted above (from the Sydney Morning Herald) has a quote they attribute to him that says "I used to be a Rafidi, but not any more. Now I am a Muslim, Alhamdu Lillah." I searched at and least one result seems to use Rafidi as a slur towards all Shias. Wikipedia states that "the term is used today by Salafis to refer to Shia Muslims", citing this book that says as much.

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Local media now saying that a third person has died, possibly of a heart attack, and that the hostage taker fired first.


....WTF! Said local (Australian!) media is now saying 5 people were shot in Philly. Surreal and depressing place to hear about such a thing.