The final, chaotic moments of the Lindt cafe siege were like being inside a firework, with guns and flash grenades going off, hostage Marcia Mikhael has told an inquest.

Mikhael was one of the last captives inside the Sydney cafe and kept her eyes on the gunman, Man Haron Monis, while hiding under tables not far from fellow hostage Katrina Dawson as the 17-hour siege moved towards its violent end.

They had taken cover after the final group to escape the siege had successfully fled in the early hours of 16 December 2014.

Monis, who had shot at the fleeing captives, reloaded his gun and ordered cafe manager Tori Johnson to “come over here right now”, Mikhael told the coronial inquest on Tuesday.

She was lying on her stomach and could not see what happened next – as Monis killed Johnson at point-blank range. She said police stormed the building soon after.

“There were shots being fired from inside and outside, the sound of little grenades,” she said. “It was like being inside a firework.”

Officers and Monis were shooting at each other and Mikhael was trying to block out the noise by placing her hands over her ears.

She said it was “the most horrible thing”.

While lying under the tables, Mikhael felt a pain in both legs and realised she had been shot. She tried to move closer to cover and curled into the foetal position, trying to avoid becoming a target again.

Mikhael said she spent about seven minutes under the tables and described the final minutes of the siege as a “blur”.

After police had stormed the building and killed Monis, two officers carried Mikhael out of the cafe with bullet wounds in both her legs.

“They had to step over Monis and half his head was blown out,” she said.

Mikhael said her hopes of leaving alive had faded as the siege continued. She criticised the police response, saying there were no negotiations with Monis.

“It was just me on the phone,” she said. “Monis wasn’t on the phone with [the police negotiator]. There was no negotiation.”

By the end of the night, she had “lost faith that it was going to be a good ending”.

“It wasn’t going to end with negotiations,” she said. “It was going to end some other way.”

Johnson and Dawson died, along with the gunman.

The inquest continues.