‘‘I was going to buy some secret Santa gifts after court but I decided to have a look in the book shop on my way. That’s when I heard a whole lot of yelling going on,’’ Mr Lancaster told the Mercury.

‘‘So I called the client I was due to meet and arranged to have coffee a little further down.

‘‘While we were sitting eating breakfast police were stopping traffic, cars turned away and police started moving down the streets,’’ he said.

‘‘We walked away and they were closing down everything. As I walked down to the corner of Pitt and Bathurst streets there was a group of about 15 police officers in their tactical gear marshalling down there.

‘‘I thought gee, there were sirens everywhere.’’

Mr Lancaster noticed more people than usual on their mobile phones, and television screens in shop windows revealed to him just how close he had come to being caught up in the siege.

‘‘If I hadn’t stopped in the book shop first I might have been in the vicinity, or even inside,’’ he said.

‘‘At first the cafe staff said it was a hold-up, but I’m a little more concerned to learn this could be terrorists and there are other targets in Sydney.‘‘It was a close call that’s for sure. Only now it’s sinking in.’’

Mr Lancaster also noticed a heavy police presence at Sutherland on his train ride home at 12.20pm.