2014 Sydney hostage crisis
After the siege began, a staged exclusion zone was established with thousands of people evacuated from nearby buildings, including from the floors above the café. The Sydney Opera House was evacuated after a suspicious package was found; however, reports were unconfirmed by police. The US Consulate General in Sydney, located in Martin Place, was also evacuated. Some Sydney schools were put in "white level lockout" due to the hostage situation, which meant that no school group was permitted to leave the school grounds.
Organised crime in Australia
Middle-Eastern gangs rose to prominence around 1995–1996 in Australia, most prominently in Sydney. By 2000, the middle Eastern gangs had gained ground in Sydney, as police were hampered by inexperienced officers, fear of Internal Affairs investigations and obstructive policy on dealing with ethnic minorities, which made NSW Police focus on other areas of crime. For a long time, Middle-Eastern gangs conducted extortion against nightclubs, ram raids, and car theft. More recently, drive-by shootings have become more common, with tit for tat drive by shooting starting as early as 1998, and becoming more common in recent years. including a drive by machine gun attack on a police station in Lakemba, Sydney. In 2006, concerns over the lack of intelligence in the wake of revenge attacks, which included stabbings and assaults, by Middle Eastern youths following the Cronulla riots; led the NSW Police to set up a permanent Middle-Eastern Organised Crime squad similar in vein to the existing Asian Crime Squad."See Melbourne gangland killings"
"See Sydney Airport bikie killing"
"See John Newman (Australian politician)"