Lindt Cafe gunman allowed hostages to make 'last call'

Lindt Café hostage Marcia Mikhael has told of the harrowing phone call she made to her sons from inside the Martin Place siege in what she believed would be the final time she would speak to them before she died.

It has been revealed today that gunman Man Haron Monis allowed several of his victims to make a final phone call to their families in the hours before police stormed the café on December 15.

Mrs Mikhael, a 43-year-old Westpac employee, feared for her life earlier during the siege when Monis demanded to see her phone, she told the Seven Network, according to reports in The Weekend Australian.

Despite the gunman's initial demands for no hostages to make contact with the outside world, Mrs Mikhael had managed to secretly send a simple text message to her husband, George.

"Lindt hostage," Mrs Mikhael wrote, to which her husband replied "I love you".

Mr Mikhael was not at home when his wife called to speak to their children, instead he was waiting anxiously at Martin Place for news.

Mrs Mikhael has reportedly also told about lying next to fellow hostage Katrina Dawson – one of two victims to die as a result of the siege along with Monis – when the 38-year-old mother-of-three suffered a shrapnel wound to her leg.

Source: The Weekend Australian