General Chat

Sadly it is all too easy to gloat when our thoughts should be with ALL those affected by this rather than give the perpetrators even a cursory acknowledgement (which can sometimes even stretch to martyrdom).

oh yes - he is dead, but sadly so is one of the hostages

and the hostage taker is dead - good result



Edit - maybe he's not dead :-S

Police have tweeted that siege over and details will be coming soon.

Just heard a new flash on LBC Radio - there has been a loud explosion and gunfire at the location of the cafe in Sydney where hostages were being held - armed police are storming the building at the moment - there are reports of casualties but no other information available :-(

Police have gone in, casualties reported. It's on live here.

apparently he's suspected of murdering his wife - nice all round guy then :-(

It appears that he has been identified as an Iranian refugee who has been awarded asylum in Australia, who is on bail for seceral charges and who is said to act as a loner. Negotiations continue through the night (BBC)

My thoughts with the hostages, their family and friends.

The whole idea of terrorism is to to terrorise and thus further political objectives. This can work quite well in the Middle East eg recent collapse of the Iraqi army. I myself was in a cafe siege in Beirut where the gunmen pair let go self destruct hand grenades which did nothing much for my looks or my suit. Nil concern by western media.

That the youngsters are taking selfies may be in bad taste but it shows that young Ozzies like their forebears are not possible to scare at all.

Feeding terrorists to the great white sharks has a certain poetic justice but I suppose would not be allowed.

I do hope that eventually the photos of those taking selfies are blazoned across the newspapers for all to see, together with appropriate scathing remarks.

Just watching another hostage seige in Ghent, Belgium :-0

just saw on the news, the lights have gone out in the cafe.

Don't know if the gunman turned off the power, or the police did.

Those poor people, huddling together in the dark, wondering what's going to happen to them.

Of course its easy for them to do this,they are detached from any emotional attachemnt and devoid of any compassion for the victims and their families.

disgraceful ,gawd knows what their families think of them,

just watching this dreadful scene - my fella is in Sydney at the mo but hopefully in a pub, not a cafe - when will these radical Islamists, if that's what this man is, realise that you can't force people to embrace any faith

my prayers go out for the hostages and their families who must be beside themselves with worry

as for the nitwits taking selfies, I hope at some stage they are named and shamed in the media, but let's not forget, for every idiot there are thousands of right minded people in the world

Heard it on the news at 5.30am our time .Just cant believe people are sending pictures to show they are there. beggers belief .lets hope & pray the people inside are all safe & get out of the building without any casualties .agree RR they will enjoy the attention by the media its sickening .Barbra

That is the problem you get with the immediacy of society now - everybody wants their own little slice of the action and we seem to have developed this unhealthy obsession with taking ownership of things that we have nothing to do with - so that we can post it online along with a graphic description of banalities that nobody could possibly be interested in.
In this instance it is not just dimwitted - it is downright sick.
Not only that, it feeds the perpetrators (the hostage taker in this case) because it is providing them with even more media coverage.

I just looked at your link Scozz

Absolutely disgraceful behaviour!

And some of them were not just silly youngsters either!

And they are laughing! :-0 :-0 :-0 :-| :-| :-|

That is part of the problem at the moment - the edges between life in the real world and fantasy (be that film or videogame) for many have become somewhat blurred.

deplorable, despicable, disgusting, and distressing!

Do they think this is an episode of Big Brother?