this is bbc america, and now live from london, "bbc world news." >> hello, i'm geeta guru-murthy with "bbc world news." our top stories. australian police surround a cafe in the center of sydney with a gunman is holding staff and customers hostage. five people have managed to escape. police say negotiators are in contact with the gunman. >> our only goal tonight and for as long as this takes is to get those people that are currently caught in that building out of there safely. >> the motive of the gunman is unclear, but earlier, a black flag with arabic writing was

placed on the cafe's window. hello, and welcome. police in australia say they're negotiating with an armed man hours after he took a number of people hostage at a cafe. the siege in central sydney is being described as an ongoing situation. the lindt cafe is located in the financial district close to the federal bank and the state of parliament. hundreds of heavily armed police are in the area. five people ran from the cafe to safety. it's not yet clear whether they escaped or had been freed. the bbc's richard galpin has more. >> reporter: hours from inside the siege, terrified staff run for their lives. it's not clear if these two had

escaped or been released, but in total, five people have now got out. it seems those still being held inside the lindt cafe have been forced to stand next to the windows. some having to hold up an islamic flag, similar to that used by militant islamist groups such as islamic state and al qaeda. but so far, the authorities are refusing to speculate on what the motivation for this attack may be. >> our only goal tonight and for as long as this takes is to get those people that are currently caught in that building out of there safely. that remains our number one priority, and nothing will change. >> reporter: there is a huge police operation under way, with heavily armed officers surrounding the cafe, locking down the city center and preparing for what could be a long siege. >> i've never seen anything like this happen. it's probably the first time in

australian history that something this major in regards to a terrorist threat has happened. >> reporter: this allegedly is the armed man holding the hostages inside the cafe. police are negotiating with him to try to end the siege peacefully. >> the whole point of politically-motivated violence is to scare people out of being themselves. and australia is a peaceful, open, and generous society. nothing should ever change that. >> reporter: the police tactics at the moment seem to be focused on the negotiations with the hostage taker, however long it takes. but still, it's not clear what his demands are. richard galpin, bbc news. >> our correspondent jon donnison -- sorry, phil mercer, in fact, is in sydney for us.

phil, just bring us up to date. it is nighttime there in sydney. >> yes. we're hearing from the abc here in australia that the gunman has been identified by the police here in australia, and this is apparently a man who is known to them. we don't know if this man has broader political affiliations in australia or beyond, or if he's simply acting on his own. and that will become clear as this investigation continues. what we do know is for more than 12 hours now, this armed man has held an unknown number of captives hostage in a cafe in the center of sydney. now, much of central sydney remains in lockdown, and we did see a few hours ago three men followed by two women who made what appears to be a dramatic escape from the cafe. the police won't say if these captives were released or had escaped. what we do know is that they are providing investigators with

valuable intelligence into what is actually going on behind the windows of that cafe here in sydney. >> and as time goes on, police obviously will have more information presumably about whether this man is acting on his own or whether he is linked to any other group or network. do we have any information at all as to how they are negotiating with him? >> well, it took them a few hours to actually establish contact with this gunman inside the lindt cafe at martin place in sydney. they now have very skilled negotiators on the line to this man. we don't know how often they're talking. we clearly don't know what sort of line of negotiation they are following. but new south wales police are saying that these negotiators are the best in the business. they are, according to senior officers, the best in the world. interesting to note that senior police officers here are adamant that they are confident that this will end peacefully. but, of course, no one knows.

there still remains a very volatile and potentially dangerous situation, and i think the australian prime minister tony abbott did sum up the mood of a nation and people further afield when he talked about how terrifying it must be for those hostages to go into nighttime. we're approaching the dark hours here in australia, having been held hostage for more than 12 hours. so one can only guess at the privations, the fear, the panic, the terror that's going through their minds. but safe to say, australian police are here in vast numbers, many heavily armed and those negotiators are going about their business as well. >> phil, thanks very much indeed. phil mercer in sydney. a reporter for channel 7 news was at the scene, because their offices actually overlook that cafe. he told me what he could see. >> the cafe next door to the one that has become the center of the siege situation. we saw it around quarter to 10:00 this morning. all the activity breaking out

around the cafe. everyone went closer for a look. the police were quickly there and pushed us all back. it wasn't until we saw the hostages up against the windows that we realized just how serious this was, and when we saw the now famous black flag being held up by one of the hostages with arabic writing on the front that it took far more severe and serious turn. at that point, the police effectively evacuated our building. we live in a glass fish bowl of a newsroom that looks out over the martin place in front of us, and they decided it was simply too unsafe to allow staff to stay there, so the 200 or so of us were evacuated as were many of the people surrounding, either taken out of the buildings or gone into lockdown. that was hours ago. the police have now been gracious enough to allow us to come -- or myself and a camera to come back inside and take this position, and for the last few hours have been watching obviously with absolute intrigue and even more sympathy for the people inside. but we can see directly into the

windows of the cafe. it's less than 20, maybe 30 meters in front of us, and the last few hours we've been able to see some of the movements inside there. the lights have been left on. the gunman either forgetting or just ignoring, refusing to turn them off, and we could see the movements inside, including things like food being brought to the hostages who seem to be huddled in one corner at the far end of the cafe. we put the number at about 15. we've se in the last hour or so, the gunman has switched off the lights, the place now is in pitch black darkness. the windows are still open and uncovered, except for the fourth window. there are four windows. the fourth window still has that islamic flag, either being held up or being taped to the window. very, very grim scene here indeed. >> you say the gunman switched off the lights. do we know that it was him that did it, and does it seem as

though there is only one gunman there? >> we're sure he did it because he's in control of that situation completely inside. we believe there's only one gunman. there was some speculation there might be two. but i think everybody is working to the theory that there's just one. we could see him clearly moving around in a menacing way behind the captives earlier through the day, and later this afternoon as well. wearing a white shirt, black cap. he was bearded. sorry, unshaven, really, rather than having a beard. he was carrying what appeared to be a pump action shotgun. as for the hostages, as i say, 15 of them, five now escaped or released and ten we believe still inside. and we saw them through the day being pinned up against the glass, being forced to stand there. one woman we counted some two hours she was forced to stand against that glass with her hands on the window pane and her face and forehead resting against it.

you could see her eyes. she was looking blankly out across at a very empty martin place, and those eyes were red-raw. she'd been extremely upset, completely understandably so, and she'd obviously been crying for some time. another young man who was holding his head in his hands. >> chris reason there with some of the sights in that cafe. well, joining me now from our newsroom is our security correspondent gordon carrera. what information do you have about who this gunman could be? it seems that from monitoring, there isn't huge amounts of traction on the jihadi websites. >> that's right. we do think he's known to police and media in australia. he may be someone with an established track record in some way of some kind of unusual behavior. but it's interesting that neither the police nor the media are saying much about that, and that reflects a wider decision i think not to give him too much publicity at this moment to try and control the situation, to

give those who are doing the negotiating as much leverage as possible in terms of the way they talk to him. we know, for instance, there have also been demands made by the hostage-taker and videos that he's put out, and he's tried to get in contact and put those out to the media directly, and the police have asked for those not to be broadcast at this point. it's, again, part of the police and the authorities trying to control the situation as much as possible to give them as many possibilities as they can to try and defuse this peacefully. >> i know we won't have exact details what's going on, but the police say they have the top negotiators. what are the tactics they can use? >> it often involves having a rapport. that involves knowing as much as you can about him, about what his motivations are, about what his background is, to try and understand what he's trying to do, what his aims are, and then trying to talk him down from that situation.

of course, the longer it goes on, the more complicated that can get. it can put different pressures on, including tiredness, particularly when you've only got one hostage taker. as this goes on, the situation can change, the dynamics. but all the way through, those negotiators will be trying to build a rapport, a conversation to talk him down effectively from using violence. >> gordon, we've also heard a lot of warnings from australia about a security alert. is this the kind of alert that they were worried about? and what about, you know, any potential links? there was speculation about other locations, links with other groups. >> we don't know about any links to other groups at this point. clearly this man has had people place a flag there, which attributes him to being some kind of islamist in some way. but we can't be sure he's linked to anyone at at this point or any other movement. the threat level went up in

australia recently. there were around of arrests. concerns about a particular plot to behead a member of the public in australia. and so they have been worried about self-starters as well as organized plots about people who might just attempt to carry out violence on their own. now, this could well be that. and the indications are so far that that's more likely as the scenario. but i think the police and intelligence agencies will also be working hard to see if there are any other links to a particular group or movement or whether there's any kind of other conspirators who might be out there involved in this. >> gordon, i know i've got to let you go for now. thanks very much indeed. tony abbott gave this news conference in canberra on the incident that's taking place. >> we don't yet know the motivation of the perpetrator. we don't know whether this is politically motivated, although obviously there are some

indications that it could be. we have to appreciate that etch in a society such as ours, there are people who would wish to do us harm. that's why we have police and security organizations of the utmost professionalism that are ready and able to respond to a whole range of situations and contingencies, including the situation that we are now seeing in sydney. the whole point of politically motivated violence is to scare people out of being themselves. australia is a peaceful, open, and generous society. nothing should ever change that. and that's why i would urge all australians today to go about their business as usual. >> tony abbott there, the prime minister, of course, of australia. well, we're joined now by a

senior analyst in national security at the australian strategic policy institute in canberra for us today. what was the security threat about? because we've seen a lot of concerns raised. is it this sort of action that you think that the authorities were fearing? >> i think it absolutely is. gordon corera just mentioned there's been a real ramping up of australian authorities' awareness of their response to these issues. and this was their concern, that there could be a motivated individual, if indeed this turns out to be related to some islamist extremist grouping, that an individual would carry out some kind of random act. you know, three months ago, not only did tony abbott begin vocalizing the threat as he saw it and he had been informed by his intelligence agencies about

this, that there were individuals -- numbers of individuals traveling into syria and iraq from australia. and numbers of those returning home. if this individual is in any way associated with that grouping, we don't know, but what we did see was a wrap of new counterterrorism legislation be afforded to the policing agencies here, and also the intelligence agencies in order that they had enough of a suite of legislative responses to conduct preemptive policing, which is the norm in operations. but three months ago also, there was a series of 15 arrests that took place. one of those was a young man in sydney, who was charged with a terrorism offense, which was -- he was alleged to attempting to plot to abduct an individual from this kpablgt same part of the central business district in sydney.

placed it on youtube. not that these two instances were linked directly, but it's the fact that in the same part of sydney has been targeted twice now. >> when you look at what the intelligence agencies can do, if they're trying to stop lone wolf type operators, how huge a task is that? because if they're not affiliated with other networks, does that presumably make it harder for them to be picked up? >> absolutely. it's the proverbial needle in a haystack. you're reliant upon communities, on a public who are aware and not afraid of reporting back into the right authorities that something peculiar is going on in and around that part of the country, whatever that might be. whereas in the past, you've seen the adjustments that have taken place in a uk context, australian context, in terms of disrupting larger network groups, which you have a far

larger number of interdiction points. and it's these kind of incide e incidences where there's one individual or a small number of individuals. it's more difficult to pick up on what might be about to happen and what their motivations are. >> many thanks indeed for joining us today. we appreciate your time, thanks. well, of course, reaction is coming in all the time now. and from the muslim community, or parts of it at least in australia, the top cleric there has condemned the siege. a statement released on behalf of ibrahim mohamed saying the grand mufti condemn this criminal act unequivocally and reiterate that such actions are denounced in part and in whole in islam. strong message there. cog out of australian muslim groups. do stay with us here on "bbc world news." we have much more for you.

more coverage as the hostage crisis continues at a cafe right in the center of the city.

this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy with the latest headlines for you. australian police have surrounded a cafe in the center of sydney, where a gunman is holding staff and customers hostage. five people have managed to run away from the cafe. negotiators say they're in contact with the gunman. a black flag with arabic writing has been displayed at the cafe's window. we're going to break away from australia and just bring you some other breaking news this hour, because four armed men have taken a hostage in belgium. police have blocked off a wide perimeter around an apartment block in the city of gent. it's still unclear what the intentions are, but prosecutors say there is no indication that the group is linked to

terrorism. our europe bureau chief simon wilson is in brussels for us. simon, just tell us what you know. >> well, let me start by expanding a little bit on that news from the prosecutor's office, because when they were specifically asked about this, they've said they don't think this is similar to the incident in sydney. what we do know is that early this morning, four men, some witnesses say that they were armed. went into an apartment block in ghent, a city in western bill judgment. -- belgium. there were reports that a hostage was taken. that hasn't been absolutely confirmed, but both the police and the prosecutors office have said they are treating it as a potential hostage situation. throughout the morning, there have been quite dramatic scenes in this area of ghent. dozens of armed police, helicopters in the air. as you would imagine, cameras and satellite fans and members of the public looking to see

what's going on. now, within the past few minutes, there have been developments on this. we understand that there are reports that at least two, possibly three men have been seen being led away from the scene in the custody of police officers. we can't be certain that these are the men in question, but that's certainly the latest coming from ghent. >> simon, i'm so sorry, but we're having problems with the microphone there. thanks very much indeed. i think we've got the main points there bringing us up to date with events in belgium. prosecutors saying that at first sight, this does not seem to be an act of terror. obviously people on alert with events in sydney for any other sort of similar situations. but we are keeping you up to date across all our news today. let's catch up with other stories today. hundreds of brazilian police officers and their relatives have taken part in a protest in rio de janeiro to demand tougher penalties for crimes against police. 80 officer were killed in this

year alone. protesters laid crosses on the sand. those killed have mostly been involved in tackling criminal gangs, which control many of the city's towns. satellite data suggests that arctic sea ice may be more resill i can't in the face of global warming than previously thought.ient in the face of glo warming than previously thought. thickness of the ice may be more important than the surface area it covers. that would make a catastrophic collapse of the icecaps less likely in the near future. senior european officials have warned turkey that police action against opposition media outlets goes against european values. turkey is a candidate to join the eu, but membership talks have recently stalled. at least 24 people have been arrested in police raids on a leading newspaper and tv station, both of which are said to have close links with opposition parties. just let me remind you of our top story. police in australia are maintaining their lockdown of the financial district in sydney

into the night, as continues to hold a number of people hostage. negotiations are continuing with the hostage-taker, who police say is known to them. five people have fled the building in martin place, which is surrounded by hundreds of armed police. it's not clear whether the five people who managed to escape were deliberately set free or whether they managed to get out themselves. but we understand that the cafe's lights have now been switched off, and a black flag with arabic script showing the islamic profession of faith has been displayed at the cafe window today. muslim groups across australia say they were horrified at the siege and they were praying for the hostages' safety. those are the live images there out of sydney. also, just to let you know that from what our monitoring services are saying, this is not gaining a huge following on the isis or jihadi online user

websites. so some speculation that this is a lone wolf type attack. but police not wanting to go into any details, understandably saying that they believe no one's been injured, and if that's true, they are grateful for that. but their key priority obviously is to get people out as safely and as quickly as possible. we're back with more in five minutes. stay with us. ♪ ♪ break the ice, with breath freshening cooling crystals. ice breakers. (vo)rescued.ed. protected. given new hope.

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i'm geeta guru-murthy with "bbc world news." our top stories. australian police surround a cafe in the center of sydney, where a gunman is holding staff and customers hostage. five people have managed to run from inside the cafe. police say negotiators are in contact with the gunman. >> our only goal tonight and for as long as this takes is to get those people that are currently caught in that building out of there safely. >> the motive of the gunman is unclear, but with a black flag

with arabic writing that's been displayed on the cafe's window. police are investigating. hello, and welcome. police in australia say they are negotiating with an armed man hours after he took a number of people hostage at a cafe. the siege in central sydney is being described as an ongoing situation. the lindt cafe is located in the city's financial district, close to australia's reserve bank and the new south wales state parliament. hundreds of heavily armed police are in the area. five people ran from the cafe to safety. it's not yet clear whether they escaped or they had been set free. the bbc's richard galpin has more. >> reporter: hours into the siege and terrified staff from inside the cafe run for their

lives. it's not clear if these two had escaped or been released, but in total, five people have now got out. it seems those still being held inside the lindt cafe have been forced to stand next to the windows. some having to hold up an islamic flag similar to that used by militant islamist groups such as islamic state and al qaeda. but so far, the authorities are refusing to speculate on what the motivation for this attack may be. >> our only goal tonight and for as long as this takes is to get those people that are currently caught in that building out of there safely. that remains our number one priority and nothing will change. >> reporter: there is a huge police operation under way with heavily armed officers surrounding the cafe, locking down the city center and preparing for what could be a

long siege. >> i've never seen anything like this happen. it's probably the first time in australian history that something this major in regards to a terrorist threat has happened. >> reporter: this allegedly is the armed man holding the hostages inside the cafe. police are negotiating with him to try to end the siege peacefully. >> the whole point of politically-motivated violence is to scare people out of being themselves, and australia is a peaceful, open, and generous society. nothing should ever change that. >> reporter: the police tactics at the moment seem to be focused on the negotiations with the hostage taker. however long it takes. but still, it's not clear what his demands are. richard galpin, bbc news. >> well, this all started many hours ago. let me just show you the live

pictures from outside that cafe now. night has fallen, of course, in sydney, and you can see martin place there, the cafe completely sealed off from the public. but the police -- you can see just about in shot there on right. very much surrounding that cafe. our correspondent film mercer gave me the latest. >> we're hearing from the abc here in australia that the gunman has been identified by the police here in australia, and this is apparently a man who is known to them. we don't know if this man has broader political affiliations in australia or beyond, or if he's simply acting on his own. and that will become clear as this investigation continues. what we do know is for more than 12 hours now, this armed man has held an unknown number of captives hostage in a cafe in the center of sydney. much of central sydney remains in lockdown, and we did see a

few hours ago three men followed by two women who made what appears to be a dramatic escape from the cafe. the police won't say if these captives were released or had escaped. what we do know is that they are providing investigators with valuable intelligence into what is actually going on behind the windows of that cafe here in sydney. >> and as time goes on, police obviously will have more information presumably about whether this man is acting on his own or whether he is linked to any other group or network. do we have any information at all as to how they are negotiating with him? >> well, it took them a few hours to actually establish contact with this gunman inside the lindt cafe at martin place in sydney. they now have very skilled negotiators on the line to this man. we don't know how off they're talking. we clearly don't know what sort of line of negotiation they are following, but new south wales police is saying that these

negotiators are the best in the business. they are, according to senior officers, the best in the world, and interesting to note too that senior police officers here are adamant that they are confident that this will end peacefully, but of course, no one knows. there still remains a very volatile and potentially dangerous situation, and i think the australian prime minister tony abbott did sum up the mood of a nation and people further afield when he talked about how terrifying it must be for those hostages to go into nighttime. we're approaching the dark hours here in australia, having been held hostage for more than 12 hours, so one can only guess at the privations, the fear, the panic, the terror that's going through their minds. but safe to say, australian police are here in vast numbers, many heavily armed, and those negotiators are going about their business as well. >> phil mercer there. more reaction, because australia's top muslim cleric has condemned the siege.

a statement released on behalf of the grand mufti said the grand mufti and the australian national imam's council condemned this act unequivocally. professor greg barton is acting director of the center for islam in the modern world many melbourne and is on the line for us now. thanks for joining us. can i just first of all ask you about the flag that we've seen on display? it's not an i.s. flag. does it belong to any particular group? >> it's not clear, geeta. it is the statement of faith, there's no god but god, and muhammad is his merge. in a different context, it's really innocuous. but the style of white lettering on black background is reminiscent of the so-called black banner jihadi banners or flags used by groups, and similar to the islamic state, they have their own iconic

lettering. it appears that the gunman wants to make that association. we've heard that one of his demands is that he be given a proper islamic state flag. so clearly he wasn't able to get one when he went to the cafe, but he's trying to make a connection with that group. >> we're hearing that this hasn't had a huge sort of online traction amongst jihadi followers and groups. what do you read into what you're seeing? what do you think is going on here? >> it looks like we're dealing with a genuinely lone wolf attack. somebody who's taken it into their own hands. no doubt responding to the call from islamic state to do what you have, what you can with the means you have to you. we've been worried about an attack for some months, taking hostages is something that we probably weren't expecting. i think we'll see islamic state and others claiming credit for this in the days to come. but at the home, it seems it caught the network in australia by surprise. this guy seems to be acting by himself.

>> and we've seen these security alerts and voices of caution, haven't we, increasingly in australia. is it the lone wolf type attacks that people have been worried about. >> yeah, the outgoing head of the australian intelligence organization david irvine, in his final weeks in office, spoke repeatedly about his great fear of a lone wolf attack. in mid september, we confirmed a connection between islamic state's call for foreign fighter recruitment and the use of those same networks to launch attacks. the last two months have been very worried about attacks like we've seen. we had one incident in melbourne, and we had ottawa and montreal. there's been a lot of apprehension that this is coming. the hostage taking element is particularly disturbing in this case. but the fact that there should be an attack is not surprising. the question is it will it just be groups of attacks or a wave of these things coming and no

one really knows the answer to that question at the moment. >> obviously we've had this statement from the grand mufti there in australia, but when you look at the muslim population in australia, is it becoming increasingly radicalized? we've seen a lot of worry from governments all over the world of people who go to syria and iraq and return to the host countries and perhaps are importing back jihadi ideas. >> well, we're certainly worried about foreign fighter recruitments, as we are in the uk. but to put it in perspective, 500,000 australians identify with islam as their faith and there's perhaps something of the order of 500 people who might be involved in support or sympathizing. so it's a tenth of 1%. but we've got some skilled recruiters grooming young men and reaching out to them. we've had over 100 australians go and fight in syria and iraq, similar numbers to what we're seeing in the uk.

it may be a minority, but it's a disturbingly dangerous minority. >> and i don't know what your contacts are saying to you, but we've seen on the other side a huge sort of criticism about the way the intelligence agencies, whether it's the cia or others are invading people's privacy. a lot of concern about hacking and intelligence gathering. what do you think now is the level of intelligence capacity in australia? how good are they? >> i think they're probably comparable to the situation in the uk. the uk and australia are different from the u.s., in that there's a lot better police community engagement. it's a real weakness in the u.s. and at its best, that community engagement is very successful. important intelligence is what you get working with community groups when they volunteer information. allegations that were heard about the cia torture techniques undermine that sense of trust. that's a real problem in the u.s.

but as all around the world, there's growing anxiety about invasions on privacy. but it is age we live in. >> professor greg barton, many thanks indeed for your time. we appreciate it. just to take you back to the events on the ground, channel 7 news have their offices literally just opposite this cafe. one reporter chris reason was at the scene. he's been following events. >> there's a cafe just next door to the one that has become the center of this siege situation. and we saw it around quarter to 10:00 this morning, all of the activities breaking out around the cafe and everyone went closer for a look and the police were quickly there and pushed us all back. it wasn't until we saw the hostages up against the windows that we realized just how serious this was and when we saw the now famous black flag being held up by one of the hostages with arabic writing on the front that it took far more severe and serious turn. at that point, the police effectively evacuated our

building. we live in a glass fish bowl of a newsroom that looks out over the martin place in front of us, and they decided it was simply too unsafe to allow staff to stay there. so the 200 or so of us were e c evacua evacuated. as were many of the people surrounding. that was hours ago. the police have now been gracious enough to allow us to come back inside and just take this position, and for the last few hours have been watching obviously with absolute intrigue and even more sympathy for the people inside. we can see directly into the windows of the cafe. less than 20, maybe 30 meters in front of us. the last few hours, we've been able to see inside. the lights have been left on. the gunman either forgetting or just ignoring, refusing to turn them off and we could see the movements inside, including things like food being brought to the hostages, who seem to be huddled this one corner at the

far end of the cafe. we put the number at about 15. we've seen 15 persons, not 50 as originally reported this morning. in the last hour or so, the gunman has switched off the lights. the place is in pitch black darkness. the windows are uncovered, except for the fourth window. the fourth window still has that islamic flag, either being held up or being taped to the window. very, very grim scene here indeed. >> you say the gunman switched off the lights. do we know that it was him that did it and does it seem as though there is only one gunman there? >> we're going to assume that he did it because he's in control obviously of that situation completely inside. we believe there's only one gunman. there was some speculation there might be two, but i think everybody is working to the theory that there's just one. we can see him clearly moving around in a menacing way behind the captives earlier through the

day, and later this afternoon as well, wearing a white shirt, black cap. he was bearded -- actually, unshaven rather than having a beard. he was carrying what appeared to be a pump-action shotgun. as for the hostages, sai as i s ten we believe still inside. we saw them through the day being pinned up against the glass, being forced to stand there. one woman we counted some two hours she was forced to stand against the glass with her hands on the window pane and her face and forehead resting against it. you could see her eyes. she was looking blankly out across at a very empty martin place, and those eyes were red raw. she had been extremely upset, completely understandably so, and she had obviously been crying for some time. another young man was holding his head in his hands. >> chris reason there painting a very vivid picture of what is going on right on the ground. if you want to find out more and

keep up to date, just go to the australia page on our website. there are live updates from our team in sydney, eyewitness accounts, and much more on australia's terror threat. bbc news and much more for you there. stay with us here. we are also going to be bringing you some more news from belgium, where there's been a large police operation in ghent. we'll bring you the latest from there.

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this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy. the latest headlines for you. a gunman is holding staff and customers hostage at a cafe in the australian city of sydney. police have surrounded the building. five people managed to run away in inside the cafe. negotiators are in contact with the gunman. a black flag with arabic writing had earlier been held up to the window.

gay rights groups in russia say there's been a noticeable increase in homophobic harassment and attacks since a new law made it a crime to describe gay propaganda. supporters of the law are protecting what nay call traditional russian values, but gay rights activists say many are now living in fear. >> reporter: it's not easy being gay in russia. this is a festival in st. petersburg, and the protest mob that turned up to intimidate. they sprayed ink and shouted insults and they left a message, say no to sodom. it's why paulina installed this extra security at her lgbt support group. she tells me the atmosphere got worse after a law promote iing. >> all people understand that there's something wrong, that they're dangerous for children,

that information about them is harmful. and that it's okay to discriminate them. and it does give a green light to more violence and more aggression. >> reporter: that's a serious worry for activists. they say many were already nervous about revealing their sexuality. now fear is forcing people back into the closet. >> i feel it. that it becomes the position of being supported by government, that we are sick because russian government chooses this approach. and i don't know how to live with it. >> reporter: etch this giant iphone is unacceptable now, taken off the streets after the boss of apple revealed he was gay. this is where the iphone statue used to stand. now there's this festive tree here and just an empty space, like a new monument to increasing intolerance here. human rights activists say that

since the law banning so-called gay propaganda was passed, it's like people have been given a license to be homophobic. they say it's not just about artwork, of course. homophobic attacks are on the rise. the legislation was introduced here in st. petersburg before it reached federal level. it also insists that homosexuality is a sin and says he regrets nothing about his law. >> i want to protect my kids and my family. they can do whatever they want in their homes, in the special -- in special garbage places called gay nightclubs. they are not going to do it in the streets, because it's not polite, and it's uncomfortable for the people. >> reporter: after the last attack on his friends, ivan carries this pepper spray. he's not felt safe since masked men with pellet guns burst into an event here. ivan says he wants to leave russia now, joining a wave of

activists who are emigrating, convinced that fighting for gay rights here is a lost cause. we're going to bring you some more breaking news now. four armed men have taken a hostage in belgium. police have blocked off a wide perimeter around an apartment block in the city of ghent. still not clear what the armed men's intentions are, but prosecutors say there is no indication that the group is linked to terrorism. our europe correspondent damian g grammaticus is on the line from ghent. people are going to be worried about any link to terrorism given what's going on in sydney at the moment. >> reporter: what i can tell you is this is a working class neighborhood of ghent. police have sealed off this grid of streets. perhaps a couple hundred square meters worth around this apartment. what we know from the police is that this morning we understand they were called by neighbors, we think, who were saying that

four men had entered this apartment, possibly armed. i can only say possibly with hostage in there. that's what we know definitely from them. the talk here, completely unconfirmed, is that this may be something related to some local issue. so possibly a local dispute, possibly something to do with an issue like drugs, something like that. nothing more than that. but none of that is confirmed. that's simply the word around here, because the police have sealed it off. the streets are lined with tape there. are police units deployed hundred meters or so in front of me at the corner of the street. and down to the right there is where we believe the house where these four men were. also reports -- can't confirm them at the minute, but perhaps three, maybe all of those hostage takers, if that's what they are, may have given themselves up to the police. and certainly i can tell you the police units in front of me look pretty relaxed at the minute,

although they have got this area sealed off and a police helicopter is hovering overhead. >> so no initial evidence linking this to a jihadist organization, it looks like it is something else? >> reporter: nothing at all. there's nothing here that would suggest that from here. nothing official either, as you were saying, that that report from prosecutors saying no evidence of any links to terrorism. it would appear -- everything would suggest that this may be a local incident, but we don't know. >> obviously, police are going to be extra on alert at the moment after what's happened to sydney, and obviously whatever this turns out to be, there's going to be a certain amount of jumpiness in many parts of the world, including europe. >> well, certainly what we can say i think is that in europe, certainly there is a very clear awareness amongst police,

amongst law enforcement agencies broadly of the influence of links between european communities and what's happening in syria, groups like so-called islamic state, and that is certainly a security concern that's very, very high up on the radar for european police forces. so what will happen in australia will, of course, be of interest to them if there is any link there. but here on the ground, certainly there's no indication at the minute of any link for what anyone is saying here. >> damian, thanks very much indeed. live for us in ghent. in other news today, one of belgium's biggest general strikes in years has paralyzed air, rail, and road traffic across the country. many offices, factories and schools are closed. unions have called the strike and protest of the government's economic austerity program. police in hong kong have arrested several people as they cleared the last remaining pro-democracy protest site.

activists have staged sit-ins at the center of the shopping district for more than two months. the protesters are demanding open nominations in the city's next election in 2017. japan's prime minister shinzo abe has reaffirmed his determination to push forward with difficult economic reforms. the prime minister said the result was of an endorsement of abenomics, the name given to his efforts to revitalize the country's stagnant economy. satellite data suggests that arctic sea ice may be more resilient in the face of global warming than previously thought. a meeting of scientists in san francisco has heard that the thickness of the ice may be more important than this the surface area it covers. that would make a catastrophic collapse of the polar icecaps less likely in the near future. we are going to, of course, keep you right up to date on bbc news with events on the ground in australia, and there is more,

of course, at our website. live updates from our team in sydney. eyewitness accounts. and more on the terror threat that australia has been worried about now for the last few weeks. bbc news online, just follow the links through the world tab. this is "bbc world news." i'm geeta guru-murthy. thanks for joining us today. see you soon. crunch! a garbage truck backs into it. so,you call your insurance company, looking for a little support. what you get is a game of a thousand questions. was it raining? were your flashers on? was there a dog with you? by the time you hang up you're convinced the accident was your fault. then you remember; you weren't even in the car. at liberty mutual we make filing a claim as stress-free as possible. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance

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hoifl you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm lucy hockings. our top story, the hostage siege in a sydney cafe enters its 15th hour. a gunman is holding staff and customers at the lindt cafe in martin place in the central business districts. hundreds of heavily armed police have surrounded the building. five people have managed to escape, but it's not clear whether they fled or were freed by the gunman. >> our only goal tonight and for as long as this takes is to get those peopha