page_title: Lindt Cafe siege
section_title: Escape of first five hostages
hierarchical_section_title: Lindt Cafe siege / Events / Escape of first five hostages
caption_attribution_description: English: Crowds gather in Martin Place during the Sydney Hostage Crisis
context_page_description: The Lindt Cafe siege occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café in the APA Building in Martin Place in Sydney, Australia. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack at the time, but Monis' motives were subsequently debated. However, the findings of the Coroner in 2017 deemed the event to be a terrorist attack.
  The Sydney siege led to a 16-hour standoff, after which a gunshot was heard from inside and police officers from the Tactical Operations Unit stormed the café. Hostage Tori Johnson was killed by Monis and hostage Katrina Dawson was killed by a police bullet ricochet in the subsequent raid. Monis was also killed. Three other hostages and a police officer were injured by police gunfire during the raid.
  Police have been criticised over their handling of the siege for not taking proactive action earlier, for the deaths of hostages at the end of the siege, and for the lack of negotiation during the siege. Hostage Marcia Mikhael called radio station 2GB during the siege and said, "They have not negotiated, they've done nothing. They have left us here to die."
context_section_description: At around 3:37 pm, two hostages, John O'Brien and barrister Stefan Balafoutis, escaped from the front entrance of the building, followed by a third hostage, café employee Paolo Vassallo, who ran out from a fire exit at the side of the building. At around 4:58 pm, two female hostages, both employees, Jieun Bae and Elly Chen, escaped by running from another entrance of the building and were met by Tactical Operations Unit officers.
  Monis was unaware that Jieun Bae and Elly Chen had escaped. Jarrod Morton-Hoffman made noise to cover their exit and persuaded Monis that media reports of five hostages escaping were wrong. After the escape, Monis threatened to kill hostages.
  Police planted a covert listening device in the café during the night. At one point, the device picked up Monis saying that he wanted to kill any escaping hostages.
caption: Crowds outside the Tiffany & Co. store in Martin Place during the evening
exif: {"GPS GPSDate": "2014:12:15", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "38", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[151, 12, 361889/10000]", "GPS GPSProcessingMethod": "ASCII", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "S", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "M", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[8, 56, 41]", "GPS GPSAltitude": "0", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[33, 52, 44567/10000]", "Image GPSInfo": "491", "Image Model": "Nexus 4", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ExifOffset": "134", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image Make": "LGE", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:12:15 19:56:54", "EXIF FNumber": "53/20", "EXIF FocalLength": "23/5", "EXIF ApertureValue": "53/20", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF SubSecTime": "778939", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:12:15 19:56:54", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "778939", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "EXIF Flash": "18688", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "461", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "300", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "778939", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/20"}