The two victims, 34-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman, were pronounced dead on arrival in hospital. It’s reported that one of the deceased was shot by Haron Monis before he was killed by police.
A police spokesperson added: “Two women have been taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, while a male police officer suffered a non-life threatening wound to his face from gunshot pellets and was taken to hospital.
“Another woman has been taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to her shoulder. A 35-year-old woman was taken to hospital as a precaution.
“The police operation has concluded and the investigations into entire incident will be overseen by the Professional Standards Command. All information will be provided to the Coroner who will determine the cause of and make any findings about the events leading to the deaths.”
The incident started around 10am local time inside the Lindt cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place where Haron Monis took around 30 people hostage and held them in the café.
For hours they were forced to hold up a flag bearing the shahada, which reads: There is no God but Allah, against a window.
Later, they were used to communicated Haron Monis’ demands, including talking to the Australian Prime Minister.
However, given the current nature of the situation, the true horror of the event has yet to come to light.
Haron Monis is believed to be a self-proclaimed Islamic "sheikh" who is known to Australian police because he was allegedly involved in dozens of counts of sexual assault.
As the incident continued, over 40 Australian Muslim groups condemned the siege, saying in a joint statement: “We reject any attempt to take the innocent life of any human being or to instil fear and terror into their hearts.
“Any such despicable act only serves to play into the agendas of those who seek to destroy the goodwill of the people of Australia and to further damage and ridicule the religion of Islam and Australian Muslims throughout this country.
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“Our immediate thoughts go to the hostages and their loved ones.”
Video footage and photographs from the scene were beamed around the globe during the tense standoff, where some seven people managed to leave the building.
It’s still not known whether they were freed or if they managed to escape from the terror.
In the coming hours, more details are expected to emerge and we will keep you updated as this develops.