Live Updates: Sydney Siege Over

MOSCOW, December 15 (Sputnik) — At around 10 a.m. local time (23:00 Sunday GMT, December 14), up to 30 customers and 10 staff were taken hostage by a gunman at Lindt Café in Sydney. Several media outlets reported the suspect was carrying a backpack and a device that looked similar to a suicide belt.

A black flag with Arabic writing saying "There is no God but Allah" was seen being waved behind the hostages in the cafe.

02:43 a.m. (AEMD)

02:42 a.m. (AEMD)

02:40 a.m. (AEMD)

The Sydney siege has ended; four hostages reportedly wounded.

02:37 a.m. (AEMD)

02:34 a.m. (AEMD)

CNN reports that the police operation to save the hostages is over.

02:31 a.m. (AEMD)

The Guardian reports that a bomb disposal robot is now going into the building. 7 News Australia reports that the gunman is shot dead.

02:28 a.m. (AEMD)

02:24 a.m. (AEMD)

"There are large groups of people emerging from the building. They all look like emergency services," the Guardian correspondent Hele Davidson reports.

02:20 a.m. (AEMD)

The police is storming the Lindt cafe, hostages are being carried out.

Shots appear to have been fired outside the cafe, media reports.

02:11 a.m. (AEMD)

At least five more hostages have been seen escaping from the Lind cafe, Sky News reports.

02:10 a.m. (AEMD)

02:00 a.m. (AEMD)

More about Man Haron Monis: he was first noticed by the police when he penned poisonous letters to the family of dead Australian soldiers seven years ago, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

01:45 a.m. (AEMD)

The Guardian correspondent Helen Davidson reports via Twitter that relatives and friends of the hostages are still staying near the cafe.

Her colleague Bill Code also reports that NSW police units are guarding the scene.

01:25 a.m. (AEMD)

Man Haron Monis is well known person in Australia, he has his own page on Wikipedia.

According to his Wikipedia page, Sheikh Haron was born in 1964 in Iran. In 1996 he fled Iran to Australia in 1996 as a refugee.

01:10 a.m. (AEMD)

NSW police believes the man who seized hostages is Man Haron Monis (also known as Sheikh Haron), an Iranian-born cleric.

00:45 a.m. (AEMD)

An Indian IT specialist is among the hostages in the Lindt Cafe in Sydney, Indian IT company Infosys confirmed Monday.

"We can confirm that one Infosys employee is among the hostage at the Lindt Cafe in Sydney. We are also in the process of confirming the whereabouts of all our employees in the city. We are in constant touch with the local authorities and Indian Consulate in Sydney for updates on the situation on ground," an e-mail circulated by Infosys spokesperson Sarah Gideon said.

00:40 a.m. (AEMD)

Australia’s New South Wales Police Force (NSWPF) have activated the so-called Task Force Pioneer, after classifying the Sydney cafe siege as a terrorist attack, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday, citing NSWPF deputy commissioner Catherine Burn.

00:33 a.m. (AEMD)

The gunman is allegedly an Iranian asylum seeker who murdered his ex-wife and has been charged with numerous cases of rape.

00:15 a.m. (AEMD)

The New South Wales police commissioner Andrew Scipione told journalists that all the hostages are believed to be unharmed.

00:04 a.m. (AEMD)

Previous updates here