Sounds like two hostages dead in addition to the gunman. I have limited time for this forum today so quick response to Ridge:

The gun/knife controls are an indicator of mentality. This Islamic terrorists, like so many of our own domestic mass-shooters, are cowards and seek easy targets. This kind of crap happened far less frequently when we showed some spine -- same with the UK and Russia. The Chechnyans got bold with domestic terrorism in Russia when they perceived weakness in the government and have been much less pervasive in Putin's admittedly tyrannical regime. We don't need to be tyrants like Putin as long as we have a backbone like Thatcher/Reagan and it starts with not molly-coddling society with crap like the gun/knife controls presently at play in Australia.

Again, terminating the gunman with prejudice (as Australia just did) shows some spine and shows future wannabes just what's going to happen. The loss of two hostages is sad but pussyfooting around leads to more instances, more hostages, more people dying.

Peace Through Strength.