Man accidentally bumped into alleged gunman

A man has described the chilling moment he accidentally bumped into the Lindt Café's alleged gunman moments before the hostage situation took hold.

Craig Stoker was walking down Sydney’s Phillip Street after buying a coffee at the Lindt Café this morning when he bumped into a man “carrying a blue bag”.

“He was wearing a black t-shirt with white writing on it and a headband,” Mr Stoker told the Daily Telegraph.

“The bag bumped into me and there was something hard in it. I said ‘watch where you are f---ing going.’”

Mr Stoker, a father-of-four, said the man turned around and threatened to kill him.

“He said ‘do you want me to shoot you too.’ I looked into his eyes and they were crazy. I was pretty freaked out,” he said.

The man described by Mr Stokers matches an image of the alleged gunman captured standing inside the Lindt Café.

Mr Stoker was visiting the Sydney hospital in the CBD to have stitches removed and only learned how lucky his escape was when he came out of surgery.

“I had no idea what was going on. When I found out I was pretty shaken up,” Mr Stoker said adding that he’s now going to “buy a lottery ticket”.