There just cannot be any mercy here.

Calm it down a notch, rambo.

Just hit a little too close to home. The GF normally works on Martin place but has the day off thankfully.

It's supposed to hit close to home, that's why you need to calm down, as does everyone.

These live feeds really need to be shut down.

Yeah, I've been thinking the same. No-one wants to see their son, daughter, friend or neighbour die on TV. Footage of it will just make shit worse.

Can anyone confirm if it's actually an ISIS flag? That was the initial report, but reports now seem a little more cautious.

No-one wants to see their son, daughter, friend or neighbour die on TV. Footage of it will just make shit worse.

My colleague Michael Safi reports the flag in the cafe window appears to bear the Shahada: “There is no god but the God, Muhammad is the messenger of God”.

He reports:

The flag that hostages appear to have been forced to hold up in the window of the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place is not the Islamic State flag - but that isn’t to say that Isis is not involved in today’s incident.
The flag appears to bear the Shahada, an Islamic creed which reads: “There is no god but the God, Muhammad is the messenger of God”.
It’s a perfectly benign symbol and appears across the Islamic world, including on the Saudi Arabian flag. But it has also been embraced by jihadi groups such as Jabhat Al-Nusra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate currently fighting in Syria.
Two Queensland men were arrested in September for allegedly trying to enter Syria to fight with the group, or facilitate the entry of others. Having said that, Jabhat Al-Nusra have not been known to have the capacity or inclination to carry out terror attacks outside Syria.

It's not necessarily an ISIS flag, it's a generic Islamic proclamation.

Not good.

And I want to go to the Asian Cup final in Sydney >.<

-PB

Hoping this isn't Australia's 9/11.

-PB

It will be treated as such by the government, regardless.

Our very own Patriot Act by years end.

apparently two gunmen

want to speak to the pm live on radio.

They shouldn't be showing it live.

This.

So fucking stupid.

I am seeing a lot of people tweeting/asking about the supposed police raids taking place in Lakemba at the same time as the siege. Ray Hadley, a conservative presenter with 2GB, said raids of homes in Lakemba, which has a large Muslim population, were taking place now.

Sources have told my colleague, Michael Safi, there are no raids underway in that suburb. About 20 police are touring the Lakemba mosque as part of a police induction day, which may have been the source of those reports.