Two people shot dead outside police headquarters in Sydney
Australian police sealed off streets and warned the public to keep away from New South Wales state police headquarters in Sydney on Friday (Oct 2) after two people were shot dead outside the building.
Mail Online reported that the two people were a civilian IT expert working for police and the lone gunman.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper said a man had fired on the building, hitting a police employee before being shot dead by police who were guarding the entrance to the building.
ABC News quoted a local resident, Mr Raj Sodhi, as saying: "As I was sitting in my apartment I heard three or four bangs."
He added: "And then within half a minute of that there were three or four more bangs."
A police statement said: "It appears an officer has discharged his weapon, responding to a report that a person had been shot.
Not terror-related
"Two people have died at the scene."
The incident, which happened at around 4.30pm, is not thought to be terror related, the Australian Broadcasting Corp said.
Australia has been on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown Islamist radicals since last year.
In December, two hostages were killed when policed stormed a central Sydney cafe to end a 17-hour siege.
Sources: Reuters, Mail Online, ABC News, Daily Star, Mirror, The Guardian
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