In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

When an unidentified man took as many as 40 people hostage in Sydney’s financial district this morning, mass evacuations in the area created a huge price spike for Uber cars in the area. At one point the company was charging at least AU$100 (US$82), or roughly quadruple the normal price, according to Mashable. 
  
 While the apparent price gouging amid a crisis was cringe-worthy, the company wasn’t completely at fault—after all it relies on an automated algorithm to set prices, and demand had spiked. Uber has agreed to cap prices in the US during emergencies, but it has no such arrangement in place in Australia. 
  
 What wasn’t automatic was the company’s ham-handed PR response: Uber Sydney quickly explained on Twitter that the prices were high because the company was concerned: 
  
 We are all concerned with events in CBD. Fares have increased to encourage more drivers to come online & pick up passengers in the area. — Uber Sydney (@Uber_Sydney) December 15, 2014 
  
 The tone-deaf response was, not surprisingly, immediately and brutally criticized: 
  
 .@Uber_Sydney stop being assholes. Way to blow your big moment. — Gavin Cooney (@gcooney) December 15, 2014 
  
 Uber’s executives realized their mistake about an hour after their first response, and ultimately offered free rides to anyone leaving the area where the hostages were taken: 
  
 Uber rides out of the CBD today are free for all riders to help Sydneysiders get home safely. See http://t.co/UIwoom25Bm for more info. — Uber Sydney (@Uber_Sydney) December 15, 2014 
  
 The New South Wales police have asked everyone to leave the area, prompting some to wonder whether Uber should be urging drivers to enter it. 
  
 The incident, which is relatively small change compared to the uproar over an alleged rape by an Uber driver in New Delhi, does highlight that the company’s biggest gaffes have been self-inflicted by its own executives, rather than being caused by its vaunted logistics platform or well-designed mobile app. It seems there’s an Uber for everything—except crisis communications. ||||| This post was updated at 10:45 p.m. ET to include an updated statement from Uber. 
  
 Uber briefly charged its users in downtown Sydney a minimum $100 to escape an armed hostage crisis, a result of automatic surge pricing meant to get more drivers online. 
  
 An executive in the city's Central Business District (CBD) sent Mashable screenshots of the Uber app that showed the company was charging up to four-times the normal rate because "demand is off the charts." 
  
 Price surging was implemented in Sydney, Australia on Dec. 15th, 2014, during a hostage siege in the CBD. Image: Mashable 
  
 "I have never, ever seen it at four-times [the normal rate] and I'm a 1% top Uber user," said Matthew Leung, the user in contact with Mashable. "I understand the way the business works — higher the demand, higher the charge — but four-times at $100 minimum is ridiculous. Almost price gouging at its worst." 
  
 Another customer shared a screenshot of their "wack" fare estimate that showed a trip from an area just blocks from the siege to the airport would cost $145-185. That journey would normally cost less than $100, according to Uber's website. "This is price surging," he wrote in a comment to Mashable. 
  
 After Mashable published a story on the price hikes, the company reversed course and announced that all riders in the area would be free, and that anybody who had been charged the higher amount would be refunded. 
  
 "We are all concerned with the events happening in Sydney," Uber spokesperson Katie Curran told Mashable in a statement. "Uber Sydney will be providing free rides out of the CBD to help Sydneysiders get home safely." 
  
 Image: Uber 
  
 Any riders who were charged the higher amount may email supportsydney@uber.com to get their refund, she said, adding that surge pricing only remains in place to encourage more drivers to come online and pick up passengers from the area. 
  
 Uber, the company said, will now pick up the tab. 
  
 Uber Sydney's Twitter account tweeted the info. 
  
 Uber rides out of the CBD today are free for all riders to help Sydneysiders get home safely. See http://t.co/UIwoom25Bm for more info. — Uber Sydney (@Uber_Sydney) December 15, 2014 
  
 The crisis involves at least one hostage taker and about 13 hostages, all being held in a cafe in downtown Sydney, Australia. 
  
 At present, little is known about the assailant, other than the fact that an Islamic flag was shown in the cafe window, leading some to suspect that the incident may be a terrorist attack. Police have evacuated most of the area. 
  
 Following the police evacuation, many locals have reported difficulty in finding transportation as they attempt to exit the area. 
  
 Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had previously said the company's pricing algorithms will be "capped" during situations like what's unfolding in downtown Sydney. "For each market, the state of emergency price will be set after excluding the 3 highest-priced, non-emergency days of the preceding 2 months," he said, adding that the policy "intends to strike the careful balance between the goal of transportation availability with community expectations of affordability during disasters." 
  
 Last July, New York's attorney general announced that Uber agreed to put a cap on prices during “abnormal disruptions of the market,” meaning natural disasters and emergencies, to comply with the state's price gouging regulations. It isn't clear if a similar agreement is in effect in Australia. 
  
 Uber launched in Australia in Oct. 2012. 
  
 Seth Fiegerman contributed to this report. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. |||||
Uber ran smack dab into trouble today amid the somewhat unlikely backdrop of Sydney's hostage crisis: The company's rates quadrupled, automatically soaring because, as users of Uber's app were told, "demand is off the charts." Mashable reported on the issue, and Uber subsequently made all rides near the crisis in Sydney's Central Business District free, offering a refund to those who'd already paid. "We are all concerned with the events happening in Sydney," a rep said. "Uber Sydney will be providing free rides out of the CBD to help Sydneysiders get home safely." But the damage appears done, with a Twitter uproar in the works and headlines such as one from Quartz deriding its "idiotic response to Sydney’s hostage crisis." Meanwhile, legal woes continue for Uber, which is set to be banned in France—after already suffering bans in Spain, Thailand, and the Netherlands, the New York Times reports. The move follows a court decision in October which, an Interior Ministry spokesman says, "well demonstrated the illegal nature of the service." The government, he notes, aims for "better regulating the profession to avoid unfair competition." After the ban starts in January, violators could face two years in jail along with fines nearing $400,000.