The hostages who were held at the Lindt cafe in Sydney have recalled the horrifying moments two innocent people were killed.
The survivors gave emotional accounts to Channel Seven and Network Nine of what happened during the 16-hour siege last December, which led to the death of cafe manager Tori Johnson and mother-of-three Katrina Dawson.
The two channels went head to head, choosing to air their special coverage of the Sydney siege at the same time (6.30pm) on Sunday night, although Seven sneaked in and began coverage around 20 minutes earlier than advertised.
In one powerful moment, Louisa Hope recalled how toward the end of the ordeal, gunman Man Haron Monis called Mr Johnson over and told him to kneel down.
"He (Monis) calls him over and says kneel down and put your hands on your head," Ms Hope said.
However, Marcia Mikhael told Seven nothing was said to Mr Johnson, adding, "If he kneeled, maybe Monis pushed him down but there was nothing spoken."
Ms Hope said Mr Johnson was sobbing as he knelt, and while the gunman "scanned the room".
Ms Hope said Monis' demeanour then "completely changed".
"He suddenly steels himself and goes very firm, and very hard and very absolute in his body ... and then he shoots Tori."
She said it was some minutes between Mr Johnson kneeling and his execution.
It was time enough for "Tori to steady his heart"," she added.
"It's too unbelievable that that beautiful man was alive a moment ago."
An inquest on January 29 already revealed Mr Johnson was murdered in cold blood, shot in the back of the head by Monis, while Ms Dawson was killed by ricocheting police bullets.
However, some new information came through the two specials.
This included that cafe workers Jarrod Morton-Hoffman and Joel Herat were armed with scissors and a stanley knife, and at one point considered attacking Monis, as told to Nine.
Survivors also said that after the first group of hostages escaped, Monis "made a deal" with those remaining that for every subsequent escape, someone would be killed.
It was also revealed that Monis fired at a group of fleeing hostages in the early hours of December 16.
Viswakanth Ankireddy, 32, says he remembers dashing from the cafe and nearly getting hit.
"I was the last person that ran through that door.. I felt that rush of air just passing so fast past my head," he says.
Seven's main interviewees include Ms Mikhael, who was reportedly paid more than $300,000 for her story, and John O'Brien, 82, the first hostage to escape, who is said to have received $100,000.
They also spoke to Lindt cafe workers Elly Chen and Bae Jie-un, whose terrified faces were splashed across newspapers around the world as they fled the cafe.
For Nine, the eight interviewees featured on the nearly three hour program include cafe workers Mr Morton-Hoffman, Mr Herat, Fiona Ma and Paolo Vassallo.
Channel Seven concentrated on the hostages who escaped and Ms Mikhael's account of the ordeal, revealing how she was next to Ms Dawson when the events came to its horrifying end.
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