Lindt Cafe hostage drama in Martin Place, Sydney: day two

That's all from us today, a day that began with a violent end to the 16 hour siege that held 17 people captive, and ended with a city united in mourning.

Thousands covered Martin Place in flowers and thousands have written notes of condolence on pieces of paper that the NSW Goverment has pledged they will bind together into books.

We celebrated the lives of the two hostages who died, Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson. And we learned about the 15 survivors who came from all walks of life but will be bounded by this tragedy.

Also today, we learned more about gunman Man Horan Moris while Prime Minister Tony Abbott faced questions about why someone known to the Australian Federal Police and ASIO was not on the terror watch list.

Rick Feneley has written what is known so far about the siege here.

About 9.30am on Monday, barristers Katrina Dawson and Julie Taylor popped into the Lindt Chocolat Cafe. The pair worked together in commercial law, around the corner at the prestigious Eight Selborne Chambers next to the Supreme Court.

Ms Dawson, a 38-year-old mother of three young children, and Ms Taylor, pregnant, were among nine customers and eight staff inside that small cafe in Martin Place. They were there with Stefan Balafoutis, another young member of the NSW bar, from the 10^th Floor Selborne/Wentworth Chambers.

There were some familiar faces in the crowded room: Elly Chen, their smiling barista, a 22-year-old student from the University of NSW; Tori Johnson, the cafe's affable 34-year-old manager.

They would not have recognised 30-year-old Harriette Denny, visiting Sydney from the Sunshine Coast. A 75-year-old woman was also among the customers.

Then, through the cafe's automatic glass sliding doors, entered a bearded 50-year-old man. This was Man Haron Monis. He was wearing a bandanna and carrying a blue bag that contained a shotgun.

Read the rest here.

Sections of the Lindt building have been provisionally re-opened and access to Phillip Street chambers will be permitted tomorrow morning. Barristers will be able to access Frederick Jordan and Garfield Barwick chambers.

"The Bar Association is very grateful for the generosity shown by these chambers. It is yet another demonstration of the collegiate nature of the NSW Bar including the care and support shown by its members during this difficult time," said Arthur Moses SC.

All roads have been reopened in the centre of Sydney but the corner of Phillip street and Martin Place where the Lindt Café sits will remain blocked off for several days to come.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Fuller has urged all Sydneysiders to go about their daily activities as usual tomorrow.

"Martin Place will be open and we will ensure there is a strong police presence to maintain public confidence. Police again thank all members of the community for their patience as we continue to conduct investigations," Mr Fuller said.

"NSW Police officers continue to carefully undertake crime scene analysis at the café, and that will continue tomorrow. Further information will be issued on access to Philip Street for the public early tomorrow morning," he said.

Train services will operate normally, although Martin Place remains closed till 10am tomorrow, when normal services are expected to resume.

As Sydneysiders rush to make genuine memorial Facebook pages, some social media users appear to be engaged in something more sinister - using Sydney siege victims' images and names to profit from internet advertising or "click-fraud".

At least one page, created late on Monday night, uses the name of hostage survivor Elly Chen, whose dramatic escape from the cafe attracted global attention, to link users to a blog site, 'recentvideos', after redirecting them through online ad sites.

Director of the University of Canberra's Centre for Internet Safety, Nigel Phair, said the site appeared to be set up by online advertisers to either gain details from users computers when they clicked on the link, or profit when directing users to other ads.

"So it is people just trying to profiteer from what is ... quite a sad case," Mr Phair said.

Read the full story exposing the phenomenon here.

Thousands of Sydneysiders have visited Martin Place today and the crowd shows no sign of diminishing.

The 15 siege survivors were a mix of Lindt cafe staff, legal professionals and workers from the Westpac building on Phillip Street.

One was 19, two were pregnant and all had loving families. All were terrified by Man Horan Monis. Five managed to escape, but many saw two of their fellow hostages die in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Meet the survivors of the brave Sydney siege here.

Lindt Cafe worker Harriette Denny, 30

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made an impassioned plea for Australians not to be "corrupted by hatred" following the Lindt cafe siege.

"I was on a train this morning, and you could feel the numbness in the carriage. Everyone was thinking the same thoughts: shock, horror, imagining how those people suffered during that terrible night," Mr Turnbull said.

"Thinking about the courage of the two young people that were killed. And yet I feel that everyone was also filled with love. There were something of determination on that train; a determined love; a recognition that it's love for each other, it's love for our country which binds us together and makes us the most successful, harmonious society in the world. I felt that there was, as the train rattled across the Harbour Bridge, I felt that there was a quiet determination that we won't be intimidated by such hatred."

Read more of Mr Turnbull's reflections on the siege here.

Australian Minister of Communications Malcolm Turnbull attends a mass to pay respect to the victims of the Martin Place siege.Credit: Getty Images

The NSW Police have relaunched a high visibility operation named Operation Hammerhead following the siege incident in Martin Place.

Operation Hammerhead will see more police officers patrolling public places and major transport hubs such as the Harbour Bridge and Central station.

"Our aim is to provide and maintain high levels of public safety to ensure all NSW residents are safe and during these testing times they feel safe," Assistant Commissioner Mick Fuller said.

It will begin on Tuesday evening and run for 24 hours for the next three weeks.

Central Metropolitan Commander and Assistant Commissioner Mick Fuller said a major part of operation's strategy will focus on maintaining strong community engagement.

"General duties police, as well as specialist commands, will be deployed from the Police Operation Centre which will remain open 24/7 during the operation," Mr Fuller said.

The operation will include police from a range of departments including Riot Squad officers, Police Transport Command and mounted units.

"NSW, and for that matter, Australia is a safe place, and we want everyone who works, lives or visit NSW to feel safe," Assistant Commissioner Fuller said.

"We want the community of Sydney and for that matter NSW, to go about their day to day business with confidence and comfort in the knowledge they are safe."

For more than 16 hours, much of Australia was in the dark on what exactly was happening inside the Lindt Chocolat Café in Martin Place.

Police are still working to establish what happened, and how the hostages managed to escape over the course of the siege.

Here's a look at an interactive reconstruction of the scene of the gunman, the hostages and police movements around the café.

A reporter for News Local is reporting the NSW Police Headquarters in Parramatta are being evacuated and the area cordoned off because of a bomb threat.

A spokesman for NSW Police told Fairfax Media the site has been evacuated as a precaution but declined to comment on the nature of the threat.