Early Monday morning, a lone gunman entered the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Sydney, Australia and seized seventeen hostages. By 10 a.m. armed police officers had surrounded the café, and due to the central location of the café in Sydney’s financial district, the police also evacuated all nearby buildings and put central Sydney under lockdown.

The gunman could be seen pacing past the windows of the café. He was identified as Man Haron Monis and appears to have actively practiced a radical Sunni theology. Monis was already known to authorities as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott informed reporters that Monis had a “long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability”.

The seventeen hostages could also be seen with their hands pressed against the windows of the café. The gunman forced a few of the hostages to hold up a black flag which displayed in Arabic text the Islamic testimony of faith, “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of God”.

Shortly after 2 p.m., five of the seventeen hostages were able to escape. They made their escape through a fire exit and sprinted to safety beyond the police barrier. Monis reportedly became very agitated upon realizing what had transpired. No other hostages were able to escape and the standoff lasted until the next morning.

Early Tuesday morning Australian police and Special Forces troops entered the café from two different entrances and killed Monis. Two of the hostages also died and have been identified as café manager Tori Johnson and lawyer Katrina Dawson. Several others were injured.

The head of Islamic law in Australia, Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohammed issued a statement declaring that the Muslim community was “devastated” by the attack and the behavior of gunman Man Haron Monis was “denounced in part and in whole in Islam”.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the situation as “tragic beyond words” and offered his condolences to the hostages and their loved ones. Abbot told reporters Tuesday “Understandably, there is a lot of speculation, but it will take time to clarify exactly what happened…and why”.