Hostages were made to stand against the windows of the cafe by the gunman (Associated Press photo)
The hostages in Sydney pleaded for help - for those among them who were pregnant, sick and elderly and for those who were young and deserved a shot at a decent life.
The near-16 hour hostage crisis at the Lindt Chocolate cafe ended in the early hours of Tuesday as the Australian police had stormed the cafe. The gunman, Man Haron Monis, died. Two hostages were also killed.
Mounis had used the hostages to make his strange demands through social and mainstream media: to be delivered a flag of the Islamic State group and to speak directly with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
The authorities responded fast. Video links were quickly removed from YouTube and other conversations went unpublished by newspapers and radio stations while the drama unfolded, lest they compromise the police response. Some of the conversations and videos made by the hostages under duress have now been released.
One hostage had called The Daily Telegraph newspaper, identifying her captor, 50-year-old Monis, as "the brother."
"The brother has looked after us all. We are very, very tired," she told a reporter. "We've got pregnant ladies in here, and we've got sick and elderly, and some very young staff who deserve to have a decent, normal life at this point... so get us out of here, please."
The hostage said the gunman was next to her: "He's sitting right here, I have you on speaker, I can't compromise myself and my fellow hostages," she said.
The people, she added, did not seem to understand the danger they were facing. "We are not going to walk out of here," she said, later adding, "We just want to get out of here".
In a video message filmed in front of a black Shahada flag with the Islamic declaration of faith written on it, one hostage said her captor had placed bombs around the city - which turned out to be untrue - and that he couldn't understand why his demands hadn't been met:
"He's only asking for a flag and a phone call, and that's it," she said.
Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott later said the gunman, Man Haron Monis, was "a deeply disturbed individual' known to the police but he was not on a terror watch list.