Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts

Sydney cafe siege: CCTV shows police raid and hostages fleeing

An inquest has watched dramatic video of police raiding Sydney's Lindt Cafe to end a 17-hour siege.
In December 2014, self-styled Islamist Man Monis held 18 people inside the cafe in the central business district.
The CCTV footage shows heavily armed police entering the building's foyer at 2:14 local time on 16 December and setting off a number of flash grenades.
Monis died after he was shot multiple times, but that is not shown in the footage.
A hostage, Katrina Dawson, was also killed in the raid by a ricocheting police bullet.
How the Sydney siege unfolded
  • A gunman enters the cafe early on 15 December 2014 and has a coffee before holding a gun to manager Tori Johnson's head.
  • The gunman is identified as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian self-styled Muslim cleric given asylum in Australia.
  • Monis already faces a string of criminal charges, including sexual assault and being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife.
  • Several hostages manage to escape the cafe which is surrounded by hundreds of armed police.
  • Police commandos storm the cafe in the early hours of 16 December, after Monis shoots Mr Johnson dead.
  • Monis and cafe customer Katrina Dawson die in the police operation.
The raid was triggered when Monis shot the cafe's manager, Tori Johnson, in the back of the head after ordering him on to his hands and knees.
The footage shows the officers filing through a door into the cafe and bringing out hostage Robin Hope.
Earlier on Tuesday, the inquest saw CCTV footage of six hostages scrambling out of the cafe as a shot blasted through a nearby wall.
Sophie Callan, counsel assisting the coroner, said it was believed that Monis was trying to shoot the hostages, and not firing a warning shot as previously thought, according to the ABC.
CCTV shows six hostages escaping from the Lindt Cafe in Sydney during the 2014 siege that left three deadImage copyrightNSW Department of Justice
Image captionCCTV shows six hostages escaping from the Lindt Cafe in Sydney during the 2014 siege that left three dead
It was one of several escapes by hostages during the siege.
The coroner's inquest into the Lindt Cafe siege is entering its concluding stages.

Australia drops Tasmanian Wilderness logging campaign

Logging in TasmaniaThe Australian and Tasmanian authorities are abandoning their bid to have logging permitted in the Tasmanian Wilderness, a World Heritage site.
The decision comes after a report by the UN cultural agency Unesco said the area "should be off-limits to commercial logging in its entirety".
The Tasmanian Wilderness covers about a fifth of the island and is one of the world's last big temperate forests.
Conservation groups have welcomed the Unesco report and the logging decision.
In 2014 the Australian government asked the agency to revoke the special status of the forest to open up parts of it to logging in order to boost the island's economy, where unemployment is above the national average.
But the move - by the government of former PM Tony Abbott - attracted much opposition from environmental groups.
The Unesco report released on Saturday said the organisation "does not consider a World Heritage property recognised for its outstanding cultural and natural values the place to experiment with commercial logging of any kind".
The Tasmanian Wilderness is home to ancient forests, some of the tallest flowering plants in the world and is a stronghold for several animals that are either extinct or threatened on Australia's mainland.
Both the Australian federal and the Tasmanian state government have said they will abide by that recommendation.
Tasmanian Devils
Image captionThe Tasmanian Devil is one of a number of important species living in the Wilderness
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)