Siege man has hostage

The armed siege at a London flat took a dramatic twist today as police confirmed a gunman inside is holding a man hostage.

The pair have been holed up in the Hackney bedsit since Boxing Day. Sixty police with a huge arsenal of weapons have been surrounding the building throughout, as specially-trained negotiators carry out tense talks with the gunman, who is black and in his thirties. He has already exchanged fire with police.

It only emerged on Saturday, three days into the stand-off, that a second man was inside the first-floor flat, after negotiators heard his voice. His identity remains a mystery.

It was unclear at first whether he was an accomplice of the gunman or an innocent bystander caught up in the events in Marvin Street. But today as the siege passed the 100-hour point, Superintendent John Bobin said: "We believe the second man is being held against his will."

The revelation heightens tensions because it means police are less likely to end the siege by storming the flat for fear the gunman will shoot his hostage. Dozens of local residents have been evacuated to allow the creation of a wide police cordon, while others are only being allowed in and out of their homes when unavoidable, and then under armed guard.

The siege is one of the biggest ever operations for Scotland Yard's SO19 tactical firearms group, who are operating from a police tent inside the cordon and dressed in their full body armour and metal helmets. They have access to three types of automatic weapon - Smith and Wesson 9mm revolvers, Glock 9mm self-loading pistols, and high-powered Heckler and Koch 9mm carbine rifles. They also have access to CS canisters.

Officers were today taking it in shifts to stay close to the bedsit, at the centre of an area which was deserted. Other police were using a benefits office as an observation point and turned away staff arriving for work.

The Metropolitan Police helicopter was constantly flying over the site of the siege and dog units, ambulances and fire engines are on 24-hour standby in case a peaceful resolution cannot be reached.

This is one of the longest armed sieges in London in recent years. Only the siege of the Iranian embassy in 1980 and the IRA standoff in Balcome Street in 1975 - which both last six days - were longer.

It began on Boxing Day morning when a routine patrol in Marvin Street spotted a foreign-registered Toyota Celica wanted in connection with a shooting in Soho in August.

As they approached the car, a man started shouting in the nearby flat now under siege. Within minutes armed officers were called in. The gunman was thought to have escaped in the car in August after firing a shot at police when he was stopped by a patrol in Soho.

At 3.22pm on Boxing Day, armed police stormed the bedsit and came under fire from inside.

The squad withdrew after returning fire and more police were brought in, starting the massive evacuation effort which has now seen 12 houses "in the line of fire" emptied and dozens of other residents forced to make their way in and out of their homes under armed guard.

The gunman initially claimed he had been hit in the shoot-out, but later refused medical help. Throughout the siege, he has made no demands and has not bargained with the hostage's life.

For the first time last night, he asked for food and officers rushed to a nearby branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken to get a takeaway. Negotiators have been attempting to talk to the gunman since Thursday, and on Saturday afternoon a pistol was thrown from the flat. But police decided not to enter, believing the gunman could have other weapons.

It was later that night that the second voice was heard in the flat. Scotland Yard believed the second man was unharmed and that his presence did not change their aim of bringing a negotiated end to the siege.

Police were continuing talks, resorting to a loud-hailer early this morning after the gunman's mobile phone battery went flat.

Crowds of locals have surrounded the police lines to watch the drama unfold, with late-night drinkers from nearby bars watching last night as vans carrying the SO19 police ferried them in and out of the cordon. Resident Louise Oldfield, who heard the first shots in the stand-off fired on Thursday, said: "The neighbours I have spoken to said it was like the OK Corral gunfight."

The police operation is now being supported by a catering van, and is being overseen round-the-clock by an officer with the rank of Commander from a control room at Scotland Yard, underlining how seriously it is being taken.

Evacuated residents are being put up in a nearby hotel and have been warned not to expect a quick return to their homes.

But early this morning, the scale of disruption to the neighbourhood was made clear when one man was stopped by police at the cordon.

"Are you a resident," he was asked.

"No, I don't live here," he said. "But you're stopping me from getting to my drug dealer."