In pictures: Dhaka hostage crisis

  • 2 July 2016

Images from Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, after commandos stormed a cafe where suspected Islamist gunmen had been holding hostages.

  • Bangladeshi soldiers and security personnel sit on top of armoured vehicles as they cordon off an area near a restaurant popular with foreigners after heavily armed militants took dozens of hostages, in a diplomatic zone of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, 2 July 2016. AP

    At dawn, armoured personnel carriers and trucks carrying commandoes rolled through the streets of Dhaka, as Bangladeshi forces launched an operation to recue hostages

  • Security personnel are seen near the Holey Artisan restaurant hostage site, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2 July 2016. Reuters

    Heavy gunfire and explosions were heard outside the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan

  • Razaul Karim, right, and Hosne Ara Karim, center, whose son and daughter-in-law were rescued from the restaurant attacked by heavily armed militants, wait for them in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, 2 July 2016. AP

    Relatives of the hostages had been waiting anxiously for news. This couple just heard their son and daughter-in-law were among those rescued

  • An ambulance transports bodies found at a restaurant popular with foreigners after heavily armed militants attacked it on Friday night in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, 2 July 2016 AP

    Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said more than a dozen had been rescued but some had been killed. She said six attackers were also killed

  • Bangladeshi security personnel stand guard at the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in the capital Dhaka AFP

    All 20 of those killed were foreigners, the army said - many of those killed are believed to be Japanese and Italian

  • People carry an injured man near the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant in Dhaka AFP

    Two police officers were killed and 30 were injured in gun battles in the early hours.

  • Police officers near the the Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant AP

    The so-called Islamic State said it had carried out the attack on the restaurant, which was popular with expatriates, diplomats and middle-class families.

  • Bangladeshi security forces guard near the restaurant in Dhaka Getty Images

    High-profile gun attacks are extremely rare in Bangladesh but the country has seen a series of murders which have been widely blamed on Islamist extremists.

  • A Bangladeshi bomb disposal unit prepares to be deployed at the scene of the attack Getty Images

    As the security forces were trying to negotiate the hostages' release, a bomb disposal unit was seen being prepared to be deployed.

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