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Hostages Called Media With Gunman's Demands

The mother of a hostage who was trapped in the Sydney cafe where a man was brandishing what appeared to be a pump-action shotgun, has told how she got a text message from her son.

Speaking to a radio station in Australia, she said: "My heart just dropped… and I sent back a text message and said what's going on, are you okay? And he just sent me back a message saying 'I'm okay mum, can't talk.'

"And… left it at that and I haven't heard anything since then."

Many of the hostages were forced to use social media to relay the gunman's list of demands, and others called news outlets with the requests.

Channel 9 reporter Mark Burrows told Sky News he took a call from two female hostages, one who stayed calm and asked him to contact her husband, and a second who sounded panicked.

He said: "They were replaying the gunman's demands so I could hear him talking and then the ladies were relaying those demands to me."

He added: "One woman was remarkably calm and cool. She said she'd had food and water and she was relatively okay.

"She asked me to pass on a message to her husband and I called him and said I can't believe your partner is so relaxed and calm in all this and he said 'Well, she's like that, she's calm in a crisis'.

"The other lady that called a bit later was far more agitated. She was agitated because she didn't think anything was happening."

Meanwhile, the identities of some of the hostages began to emerge, with one woman telling how she recognised three people who were forced to stand at the window of the cafe holding up an Islamic State-like flag .

And an IT company from India confirmed that one of the hostages was an employee.

In a statement, Infosys said: "The family of the employee has been informed and we are extending all possible support to them in this difficult time. We hope that this situation gets resolved peacefully and at the earliest."

The gunman has been identified as Sheikh Man Haron Monis , who is well known to police and media in Australia.

Armed police stormed the cafe more than 16 hours after the siege began , bringing it to an end. They swooped in shortly after five hostages were seen running out of the cafe in Sydney's financial district.

Another five hostages, including two of the cafe's employees, managed to flee from the scene earlier on.

The gunman and two hostages died in the siege. Police said they have accounted for 17 hostages.

:: Follow live updates of the siege