Hostages are being forced to hold an Islamic flag against the window of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place after at least one gunman stormed the premises.
About 20 staff and customers are being held at gunpoint inside the cafe.
A number of people could be seen through the windows with their hands held in the air.
Police confirmed an operation was under way at the shop in Martin Place.
A NSW Police spokeswoman said officers were called to the shop about 9.45am on Monday. She urged people to stay away from Martin Place.
A woman is believed to have raised the alarm at 9.44am when she saw a man outside the cafe carrying a blue sports bag with a gun inside.
There are reports that there could be two gunman inside the cafe, although police have not confirmed this.
The cafe is right in the middle of the banking and retail district, and is usually packed with Christmas shoppers at this time of year.
The Channel Seven newsroom, which faces Martin Place, has been evacuated and the air space over Sydney's CBD has been shut down.
The network was originally running a live-stream of the siege, but was asked to take it down for security reasons.
State Parliament, which is one block away from the cafe, has also been closed to the public.
Terrified customers in the cafe could be seen holding an Islamic flag - which is black with white writing on it - up against the glass window. The flag appears to be a Shahada flag, not an Islamic State flag, but is associated with Islamist and jihadist movements.
I hate to say this but the terrorists will be looking to get the maximum news coverage and the swat team will be looking for simultaneous kill shots by their snipers.
Any expressed market opinion is my own and is not to be taken as financial advice
+1. The Muslims I know hate this stuff as much as we do.
It is like being Irish in the UK in the 80's we cringed everytime there was an incident, and worried about people just getting arrested and charged randomly because fear levels were so high.
Definition of a doom and gloomer from 1993 The last camp is made up of the doom-and-gloomers. Their slogan is "it's the end of the world as we know it". Right now they are convinced that debt is the evil responsible for all our economic woes and must be eliminated at all cost. Many doom-and-gloomers believe that unprecedented debt levels mean that we are on the precipice of a worse crisis than the Great Depression. The doom-and-gloomers hang on the latest series of negative economic data.
This is a diversion to draw attention away from the MYEFO.
As funny as that comment was - it turns out the gov has decided to delay the release of the MYEFO today due to this incident! So there goes that theory!
For Aussie property bears, "denial", is not just a long river in North Africa.....
Ray Hadley: The POI has told negotiators he has "devices all over the city" and wants to "speak with the prime minister live on radio".
Hadley would be getting some mileage from this.
Hopefully nobody gets hurt, my family and I were in Martin Place yesterday.
I agree with the comment re muslims, the couple I have known find it very frustrating that this sort of shit gets the headlines and reflects badly on all of them.
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