For the first time in its history, Sydney was a city in fear today.
Armed SWAT officers with head-to-toe body armour, regular police with guns, detectives, ambulance workers and police negotiators rushed around.
A massive operation was thrown into gear to clear not just Martin Place — a wide pedestrian mall containing mainly office buildings and banks — but the central area of Sydney.
Sydney siege - in pictures
As the operation began in the morning, many people were still making their way to their offices or heading out to start their Christmas shopping.
Many were confused to find armed police standing in front of them, telling them to move away from the city centre, not to attend their offices or to find somewhere further away to shop.
Others who had already arrived at their destinations were ushered out of buildings up to half a kilometre from the scene of the Lindt café siege.
Soon Sydney, on a sunny summer morning, was a city in lockdown.
Massive traffic jams built up around its fringes. Train drivers were ordered not to stop at a station that was close to Martin Place and buses that normally passed through the adjoining main street — George Street — were diverted.
Aircraft whose routes would have taken them over the city centre were ordered to follow a different flight path as police decided to take no chances by assuming the siege was a one-off affair.
Tourists heading for the Sydney Opera House to take holiday snaps beside the iconic building were told to leave as it was evacuated. A children’s show and evening music performance were cancelled.
One American tourist, ushered away from the Opera House with his wife, said: “This is unbelievable. We thought this was the kind of thing that only happened in America — not Australia.”
