Two Sri Lanka nationals among hostages rescued from Dhaka restaurant

The hostages rescued from a café in Dhaka includes two Sri Lankan citizens said the country’s foreign ministry.

The 12-hours hostage standoff, which began Friday night, ended in the morning after army commandos stormed in and rescued 13 hostages alive. 

“2 #SriLankan nationals among rescued hostages. SL High Commission official has met them and they are unharmed and safe,” reads the twitter post by Sri Lankan foreign ministry.

Seven men, one of them armed with a sword and the others carrying small firearms barged into at the Holey Artisan Bakery and O Kitchen at Dhaka’s diplomatic zone Gulshan around 8:45pm on Friday.

The men shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) on their way in and started firing blanks with at least 20 guests inside - several of them foreigners, according to the restaurant’s supervisor Sumon Reza, who managed to escape.

Security forces stormed into the cafe’ around 7:30 Saturday morning in a raid which lasted for over an hour.

Police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque said after the raid that 18 people were rescued alive.

But hours later, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at a programme that 13 were rescued.

She added that one of the gunmen was captured alive and six others were killed in the offensive.