Martin Place Lindt Cafe siege: Christmas shopper asks 'Is it for real?'

By Rick Feneley
Updated December 15 2014 - 7:18pm, first published 7:04pm
People are evacuated to Hyde Park during a siege in Martin Place.  Photo: Peter Rae
People are evacuated to Hyde Park during a siege in Martin Place. Photo: Peter Rae
Hostages were seen holding an Islamic flag that is not the Islamic State flag against the window of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place.
Hostages were seen holding an Islamic flag that is not the Islamic State flag against the window of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place.

Even as hostages held their captor's flag to the window – "There is no god but Allah," it said – a sense of unreality enveloped a city whose citizens persisted with shopping according to a tradition linked to the Christian God.