Dhaka hostage siege: Time line of events
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DHAKA: (APP) Twenty foreigners have been killed in an attack on a Western-style cafe in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, with many hacked to death during the country's worst hostage crisis in recent memory.
Bangladeshi troops stormed the upmarket Holey Artisan Bakery cafe after suspected Islamist militants took tens of diners hostage, gunning down six attackers.
Here's what we know so far:
Gunmen burst into the cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter shortly before 9:30 pm on Friday night, as people were eating dinner.
They set off explosives, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greater).
As a massive firefight broke out with police, the gunmen took up to 40 hostages, including many foreigners. Two police officers died in the gunfight.
The assailants separated out the Bangladeshis from non-locals and led foreign diners upstairs, according to the father of one diner.
They murdered 20 hostages during the course of the siege, hacking many to death with machetes.
Following an 11-hour stand-off, heavily armed commandos stormed the restaurant early Saturday morning.
The siege ended with six gunmen killed and one arrested. Some 13 hostages were freed.
