. >> let's speak now to nick doyle, a correspondent for abc who is at the scene. through the cordon. they're in plain clothes. what we do know is that police have been negotiating with the armed assailant at some stage throughout the afternoon. police are refusing to say exactly how often that contact is taking place or exactly what has been discussed. police are also not telling us exactly how many people are inside the lindt cafe. but we certainly saw five people leave the cafe earlier this evening. scenes of, well, complete shock, and the look of terror on their face really told the story of what was going on inside there. but five people safe, whether they escaped or whether they were released, it's also unclear. but we know there are an unknown number of hostages inside with an armed assailant, and exactly what his demands are, we simply don't know. >> are there any other glimpses that anyone's getting from inside the cafe? do we know if the hostages are getting food, or anything like that? >> reporter: we were told earlier that the hostages are safe. we have