Sydney hostage siege ends after police storm cafe, reports say two dead, including hostage taker and 1 hostage

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian security forces opened fire on Tuesday as they stormed the Sydney cafe where several hostages were being held at gunpoint, in a dramatic end to a standoff that had dragged on for more than 16 hours.

Media said that two people, including the gunman, had been killed. New South Wales police declined to comment on the reports, and it was not clear whether the fatalities occurred during the rescue operation itself.

Heavy gunfire and loud bangs from stun grenades filled the air shortly after 2 a.m. local time (10a.m. ET on Monday).

Moments earlier at least six people believed to have been held captive managed to flee the scene after several loud bangs were heard coming from the cafe.

Medics were seen trying to resuscitate one person after the raid and took away several injured people on stretchers, said a Reuters witness at the scene in downtown Sydney.

The operation began shortly after a police source named the gunman as Man Haron Monis, an Iranian refugee and self-styled sheikh facing multiple charges of sexual assault as well as being an accessory to murder.

He was also found guilty in 2012 of sending offensive and threatening letters to families of eight Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan, as a protest against Australia's involvement in the conflict, according to local media reports.

Although he was well known to the authorities, security experts said preventing attacks by people acting alone could still be difficult.

​"Today's crisis throws into sharp relief the dangers of lone wolf terrorism," said Cornell University law professor Jens David Ohlin, speaking in New York.

"There are two areas of concern. The first is ISIS (Islamic State) fighters with foreign passports who return to their home countries to commit acts of terrorism.

"The second is ISIS sympathizers radicalized on the internet who take it upon themselves to commit terrorist attacks to fulfil their radical ideology.

"We are entering a new phase of terrorism that is far more dangerous, and more difficult to defeat, than al Qaeda ever was."

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