After a 16 hour long siege, Australian commandos stormed a cafe in Sydney, Australia where an Islamist gunman was holding numerous people hostage.

Two people died, along with an Islamist gunman during this hostile situation. Australian media reports identified the deceased victims as 34 year old Tori Johnson the cafe manager and a 38 year old lawyer Katrina Dawson.

 The New South Wales police force issuing a statement after the end of the siege stated that  two women suffered non-life threatening injuries as did a policeman who had been hit in  the face by pellets. Another woman suffered a gunshot wound to her shoulder.

Central Sydney was put in lock down as the gunman, identified as an Iranian refugee,  seized dozens of hostages early on Monday. Man Haron Monis, forced some of the  hostages to hold up a black Islamic banner at the window of the cafe.

Monis received political asylum in Australia in 1996 and was on bail facing a number of charges. Monis was on bail for being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife. He also faced more than 40 sexual and indecent assault charges.

The self-styled cleric, who described himself on a website as a Shia Muslim who had converted to Sunni Islam, was said by his former lawyer to have been an isolated figure. One of the gunman’s demands was to have a flag of Islamic State, the Sunni militant group which recently seized territory in Syria and Iraq, to be delivered to the cafe.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the “horrific incident” at the cafe had been “tragic beyond words” and there were “lessons to be learned” from this “brush with terrorism”.

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