World News
Sydney seige hostages hailed as heroes─── 07:44 Tue, 16 Dec 2014
Sydney - Two hostages killed in a siege at a central Sydney cafe yesterday have been hailed as heroes "willing to lay down their lives so others might live".
Associated Press reports Tori Johnson, the 34-year-old manager of the Lindt chocolate cafe where the crisis unfolded, and 38-year-old barrister and mother-of-three Katrina Dawson died as heavily-armed police ended the 16-hour stand-off.
The two were honored at a prayer service in St. Mary's Cathedral about 500m from the cafe.
The gunman, widely named in the media as Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, also died in the siege while six people were injured.
Meanwhile, Charles Knight, lecturer in the department of policing, intelligence and counter terrorism at Australia's Macquarie University said the situation appeared to be that of a "lone wolf" making his own demands, rather than an attack orchestrated by a foreign jihadist group.
Australia raised the country's terror warning level in September in response to the domestic threat posed by supporters of the Islamic State group.
AP
