Police try to make contact with siege gunman holed up in bedsit

POLICE were yesterday attempting to make contact with a gunman at the centre of one of Britain's longest-running armed sieges following the dramatic escape of his hostage.

The 32-year-old man, believed to be Eli Hall, was still inside his bedsit in east London as the siege entered its 12th day.

In a development on Sunday, the hostage escaped unharmed after 10 days in captivity.

Commander Bob Quick of the Metropolitan Police told a press briefing near the scene that negotiators last spoke to the gunman around 30 minutes before the hostage escaped on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Quick said: "We have used loudhailers throughout the night calling him to the window to see whether he will talk to us. At the moment we think that he has, for whatever reason, decided not to do so."

He said police would continue to employ peaceful means to end the siege which started on St Stephen's Day after officers tried to remove a Toyota Celica car. They believed the car to have been involved in a shooting in central London.

Mr Quick added: "Whilst life is not imminently under threat we do not want to precipitate events ... and we are continuing to try to peacefully persuade him to leave the premises unharmed."

Mr Quick said the hostage managed to escape just before 3pm on Sunday after making contact with negotiators who managed to speak to him for about half an hour.

The hostage was believed to have escaped while the gunman was in another room, he said.

The man was uninjured and was currently being debriefed, he said, adding that the man, who is believed to be in his late 20s, was "traumatised" by the experience.

Mr Quick said of the hostage's ordeal: "It was grim, he was extremely afraid. He contemplated escaping on a number of occasions but was afraid."

The hostage had managed to remove some of the barricades erected by the gunman and escaped.

Shortly after the hostage escaped a shot was heard from inside the flat.

Mr Quick confirmed another shot was fired at about 7pm last night, when the gunman fired into the street in the direction of some armed police officers.

The gunman had not had food for "some considerable time" he believed that no food had been delivered since Thursday. The gunman also had no electricity and no water.

Asked to estimate how much the siege had cost so far, he said as a "ballpark figure" he believed that it had run to about £500,000.