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The Siege of Spit Bridge

On the afternoon of 1 February 1984, Australians got to watch a drama unfold that could have been straight out of a Hollywood movie. But this was real and was happening before their very eyes. It was a case of life and death. An armed bank robber had been foiled in his attempt to hold up a city bank and now had taken five hostages and was ready to kill any one of them if the police interfered.

The drama began near closing time at 3 o’clock on a hot summer Tuesday afternoon, when 35-year-old Hakki Bahadir Atahan rushed into the Commonwealth Bank in George Street, Sydney – waving a pistol and a sawn-off shotgun – and demanded money from the tellers.

Hot on Atahan’s heels were security guards and police from two nearby banks which he had just robbed in a similar fashion. Cornered, Atahan bailed up 11 men and women customers and bank staff at gunpoint and told the police that he was willing to negotiate an escape in exchange for their lives.

The negotiations went on for more than two hours inside the bank as a huge crowd watched from across the road and traffic stopped to see what was going on. The television news bulletins likened it to the siege in the Al Pacino movie Dog Day Afternoon. Soon all of Australia was watching the events unfold on national television.

Anticipating that the bandit would calm down sooner or later and release his prisoners and surrender, as was usually the case in 99 per cent of situations such as this, police decided to wait it out rather than rush the gunman and put innocent lives at risk.

At 5.30 pm television viewers found themselves watching the most remarkable scene. Atahan had decided to make his move and the bank’s doors opened and the bandit appeared on George Street surrounded by five customers and bank employees he was using as a human shield. Waving his guns about the hostages’ heads, he threatened to kill one or all of them should anyone make a move toward him.

Once on busy George Street, still surrounded with his hostages, he commandeered a passing Datsun from a terrified lady driver as police marksmen watched from only a few metres away, helpless to do anything for fear that they may kill a hostage instead.

The gunman bundled all of the hostages into the car and, with one at the wheel, took off slowly down George Street with a motorcade of police and press vehicles in pursuit.

For the next two hours the bizarre cavalcade drove slowly around Sydney’s inner-eastern and northern suburbs with police and television news crews in tow – but they kept at a safe distance so as not to intimidate the gunman into doing something stupid.

The police were close enough to the Datsun to talk to the gunman and plead with him to let his terrified passengers go, but each time he responded by shouting that if the police shot his tyres out or crashed the vehicle he would kill as many hostages as he could before he was killed by police snipers.

It was an explosive situation that was being broadcast across the nation by the pursuing television crews, and it seemed as though there was nothing that could be done about it … for the time being at least. They just had to roll with the punches and wait for the right opportunity.

After the gunman had stopped the Datsun along the way to let one of the hostages go and had collected his 23-year-old girlfriend, the police managed to corner the car at minimal risk on the Spit Bridge at Sydney Middle Harbour.

As two psychiatrists approached the vehicle to attempt to talk with the gunman, he lowered his gun and then pointed it at police. He shot a constable but the second shot that rang out was from a police sniper; Atahan was fatally wounded with a single bullet to the head.

The siege was over. From start to finish it had taken almost six hours and the chase and killing of the bandit had been witnessed as it happened by television viewers all around Australia.

An investigation into the Turkish gunman’s background revealed that he had been living in the lap of luxury on Sydney’s north shore thanks to the proceeds of a string of daring daylight bank robberies.

In the previous year he had amassed a total of about $150,000. He drove a sports car and lived in a luxury apartment at Manly overlooking the ocean. Sometimes he would rob as many as three banks a day and when the money ran out he would rob a couple more.

His girlfriend, who was being held by his side when the sniper’s bullet struck, had no idea of his criminal activities and thought he was a successful businessman.

Detective Constable Stephen Canellis, the officer Atahan shot in the head at the Spit Bridge, survived.