A hostage fleeing from a cafe under siege runs towards an armed tactical response police officer. Photo / AP
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Hostages caught in Sydney's 17-hour terror siege have revealed how some of them managed to escape when the gunman's back was turned.
Read more:
• Identities of slain hostages revealed
• Sydney siege: How the events unfolded
Before the siege in Sydney's Martin Place came to a dramatic end, the world watched as individuals and small groups emerged from the premises with terror in their eyes.
An armed tactical response police officer grabs a hostage as she runs to flee from the cafe . Photo / AP
At first it was thought the self-styled sheikh Man Haron Monis had released them, but it was later confirmed that they fled when he dropped his guard.
Their brave escape prompted an angry response from Monis, who threatened to take "an eye for an eye".
Read more:
• Profile of the man behind the siege
A 19-year-old who was being held captive rang The Daily Telegraph newspaper to tell of his ordeal and relay the gunman's demands.
Haron Monis was well known to police. Photo / AAP
A hostage runs to armed tactical response police officers for safety. Photo / AP
"If someone else runs, someone dies," the terrified young man quoted Monis as telling his captives.
The hostage described the moment Monas, 49, who was charged with ordering the killing of his ex-wife, put a gun to his head and told him to broadcast his demands to the media.
"I have had a shotgun put at my head and all (he) wants is (the demands met). We are all afraid. I don't think you need to have ever had a shotgun placed at your head."
"Yes we do need help, but that will only happen if demands are met. We have been treated very well," he said.
The call came after five of up to 20 hostages taken when Monis stormed the cafe around 9.30am on Monday managed to escape out of a fire door.
Watch: Sydney gunman had 'infatuation with extremism'
Hours later, at shortly after 2am this morning local time the crisis ended dramatically, with police using live ammunition and stun grenades as they stormed the cafe moments after six of the remaining hostages made a break for it and appeared outside the cafe.
Police confirmed three people had been killed in the extraordinary operation.
Sheikh Monis and two hostages were confirmed dead, including 38-year-old mother-of-three Katrina Dawson and 34-year-old Tori Johnson, manager of the Lindt cafe.
An injured hostage is carried to an ambulance. Photo / AP
An injured hostage is taken to a waiting ambulance. Photo / AP
A blood soaked stretcher is wheeled to an ambulance early this morning. Photo / AP
Earlier on Monday night, Seven Network reporter Chris Reason had been live tweeting the hostage's ordeal from his vantage point inside the Seven newsroom in Martin Place.
Reason reported that Monas became enraged when several of his captives bolted out of the small Sydney cafe this afternoon.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the hostages attempted to flee when they saw a moment of opportunity, and were not released by Monis as originally believed.
"The gunman became extremely agitated and started shouting (the moment they escaped). I'm assuming that, I must confess," Reason told ABC radio..
"They would have all been a bit more calm, hands on heads (if they had been let go). This was a sheer bolt for freedom."
Hostages run towards armed tactical responce police as they run to freedom from the cafe. Photo / AP
Elly Chen was one of the few to escape in the early hours of Monday afternoon, fleeing into the waiting arms of the Police Rescue squad.
The 22-year-old barista and student was the fifth hostage to escape, followed by one of her colleagues.
As photos emerged of the hostages pressed up against the window of the Lindt Café, Reason tweeted that he was so close he could see the redness in their eyes as they sobbed.
"We can see the faces of hostages - pained, strained, eyes red and raw," he tweeted, noting that one of the hostages had their "head in their hands".
Watch:
The explicit and detailed demands of Monis were made via messages to the hostage's loved ones and statuses posted on social media, which revealed disturbing details of Monas' mindset.
Three videos were posted onto YouTube, showing three women reciting demands Monas had instructed them to deliver, for Prime Minister Tony Abbott to speak directly to the self-style Islamic leader.
A video showing a middle-aged woman standing in front of the makeshift ISIL flag revealed another innocent person caught in the middle of the terrifying situation.
"The brother has looked after us all, we are very tired, we've got pregnant ladies in here and sick and elderly and the very, very young staff who deserve to have a decent normal life," the woman said.
The unidentified woman said that Monis was standing right next to her, and that she couldn't say anymore out of fear of "compromising myself and my fellow hostages."
She made a heartfelt plea at the end of the video asking the police and the Australian public, "Get us the hell out of here please."
Throughout the day members of the Australian public were reporting posts from friends and loved ones held hostage inside the café requesting that Monis' demands be met.
The posts warned that there were other bombs hidden in the city, in streets surrounding Martin Place, and that there were two other "brothers" in control of the detonation of the devices if the requests were not met.
Channel Nine was contacted by several hostages inside the café, and reports surfaced of family members being contacted by loved ones.
Mel, the mother of an apprentice plumber, told Radio 2GB's Ray Hadley she received a message from her son saying, "Mum, I'm in the Lindt chocolate cafe in Sydney.
"My heart just dropped," she told Hadley, who says he has had three telephone conversations with a terrified hostage inside the shop.
"I sent him a text message saying, 'What's going on, are you OK?' He said, 'I'm OK mum, can't talk.'
"I haven't heard anything since," the woman said late on Monday afternoon.
Family members have praised the bravery of the NSW police officers who stormed a Sydney cafe and rescued their relative, who was one of 17 hostages trapped by a lone gunman during a 16-hour siege.
"Thank you God for bringing her out alive!" Amal Helen Mikhael - a relative of Marcia Mikhael, who was taken hostage in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in the heart of Sydney on Monday morning - wrote on Facebook.
Ms Mikhael is believed to work in Martin Place where the siege took place.
Amal Helen Mikhael said Ms Mikhael was in hospital but was not seriously injured.
"Such bravery from the police who risked their own lives to save others," she wrote.
"God bless these heroes."
Ms Mikhael's niece Joanne Mikhael said: "Our prayers have been answered."
Earlier on Monday, a post appeared on Ms Mikhael's Facebook page revealing she was caught up in the siege.
The chilling post listed the gunman's demands but was taken down a short time later.
Supporters flooded Ms Mikhael's page with messages of support after police stormed the cafe and ended the siege in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
"I will be praying for you and your family," one person wrote.
• 9.45am - A man walks into the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney's central business district reportedly carrying a sports bag containing a gun.
• 10.10am - Customers and workers are pressed up against the glass of a shop window inside the cafe.
• Martin Place shut down with scores of police surrounding the building.
• 11am - Parts of the CBD placed in lockdown, Sydney Opera House, State Library and court houses evacuated.
• Siege chaos causes major traffic disruptions: Martin Place train station shut down
• Prime Minister Tony Abbott offers NSW federal support to deal with the siege in Sydney's CBD.
• Lindt Australia CEO Steve Loane says he believed between 40 and 50 people, customers and employees, were being held hostage in the cafe.
• 3.30pm - Three men flee from the cafe and into the safety of heavily armed combat police.
• 4.30pm - Performances at Sydney's Opera House are cancelled.
• 4.55pm - NSW deputy police commissioner Catherine Burn says police are still trying to work out the gunman's motivation.
• 5pm - Two more people, females, flee the cafe.
• 5.45pm - The gunman reportedly demands delivery of an Islamic State flag and a conversation with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
• 7pm - Mosques, synagogues and churches welcome worshippers, in what their leaders say is a show of community solidarity.
• 1am - Gunman identified as 50-year-old self-styled sheik Man Haron Monis.
• 2.14am - A group of hostages run from cafe.
• 2.17am - Two more men and two women race outside cafe.
• 2.20am - Ten seconds of rapid gunfire as heavily-armed police storm the cafe in numbers, managing to release others, a woman carried from the scene injured.
• 2.25am - A second volley of shots erupt before the cafe fills with police and paramedics.
• 2.51am - Reports of two fatalities
• 5am - The gunman said to be one of the dead.
• 5.29am - Three people injured following the siege - a woman in her 40s with a gunshot wound to the leg, a male police officer, 39, receives a "gunshot graze" to the cheek and a woman in her 30s was being treated for back pain.
• 5.38am - Three people confirmed dead, including the gunman. A 34-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman are pronounced dead after being taken to hospital. Plus the 50-year-old gunman.
• 5.55am - Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione confirms 17 hostages were held by the gunman.
• 6am - Prime Minister Tony Abbott commends the courage and professionalism of NSW police and other emergency services involved in the Sydney cafe siege.
- Daily Mail, AAP
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