Infosys employee among Sydney hostages

Ankireddy Vishwakant, the Indian among the hostages being held by a gunman in a Sydney cafe, hails from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh and is an employee of software giant Infosys.

The company has informed about the incident to his family in Guntur district.

Anikreddy's father Ishwar Reddy said he had left for the office in the morning and around 10 a.m. had gone to the cafe when a gunman took him and 29 others hostage.

Ishwar Reddy spoke to his daughter-in-law in Sydney over phone to gather more details.

She told him that the police officers assured her that the operation to secure safe release of hostages would be over in a day.

The hostage's father said the demands of the gunman were still not known. He also received the information that the gunman provided food to the hostages.

Anikreddy was living in Australia for six years along with his wife. The couple has a daughter. He has been working on Infosys project works with the banks in Australia.

After working for a project with National Australian Bank in Melbourne, he had moved about a year ago to Sydney to work as senior project manager with another bank.

Ishwar Reddy said his son was recently conferred Australian citizenship.

Hailing from Gangireddy Palle in Guntur district, Anikreddy is an alumnus of BITS Pilani. He worked for a couple of banks in the US before returning to India for marriage seven years ago.

He secured a job in Infosys, which sent him to Australia for project work.

Infosys said in a statement: "We can confirm that one Infosys employee is among the hostages at the Lindt Cafe in Sydney. We are also in the process of confirming the whereabouts of all our other employees in the city."

"We are in constant touch with the local authorities and Indian Consulate in Sydney for updates on the situation on ground."

It added: "We hope that this situation gets resolved peacefully and at the earliest. Our prayers are with the families of all involved."