 Early in the morning of 1 May , the gunmen ordered one of the hostages to telephone the BBC 's news desk . During the call , Oan took the receiver and spoke directly to the BBC journalist . He identified the group to which the gunmen belonged and stated that the non @-@ Iranian hostages would not be harmed , but refused to allow the journalist to speak to any other hostages . At some point during the day , the police disabled the embassy 's telephone lines , leaving the hostage @-@ takers just the field telephone for outside communication . As the hostages woke up , Chris Cramer , a sound organiser for the BBC , became seriously ill and his colleague , Sim Harris , was taken to the field telephone to negotiate for a doctor . The police negotiator refused the request , instead telling Harris to persuade Oan to release Cramer . The ensuing negotiations between Harris , Oan , and the police took up most of the morning , and Cramer was eventually released at 11 : 15 . He was rushed to hospital in an ambulance , accompanied by police officers sent to gather information from him . 
