A man who marched into a Sydney law office with his daughter and said he had a bomb in his backpack was taken into custody yesterday after a tense, 12-hour standoff with police.
The man’s 12-year-old daughter was released and reunited with her family, New South Wales police said. She was distressed, but otherwise unharmed, police said.
Police did not immediately say whether explosives had been found in the man’s backpack.
“Towards the latter part of the time we’ve been here, those negotiations have started to break down and then deteriorate to a stage where police have taken action to break into the premises and take a 52-year-old man into custody,” Police Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said. “He’s currently assisting police with their ongoing inquires.”
Police have not released the man’s name, or details of a possible motive. The man had issued a series of demands to officials, but police have not said what he wanted.
The drama began yesterday morning, when the man walked into the reception area of the lawyers’ offices. Employee Betty Hor said he approached her and asked to see someone whom Hor had never heard of. The man went upstairs briefly then returned to reception and repeated his request. She told him again that she had never heard of the man he was seeking.
Hor said the man then threw a book at her desk and told her to call the unknown man and the state attorney general’s department and “tell them I’ve got a bomb in my backpack.”
Hor called police as the man walked to a lawyer’s office with the girl, who called him “Dad.”
Emergency crews rushed to the scene, evacuated the office building and cordoned off the street below. Dozens of police officers swarmed around the perimeter of the building, and ambulances, fire trucks and the police riot team waited nearby.
Clifford declined to comment on reports the man was arrested on Monday at a government building after he was involved in an incident at the state parliament in Sydney.
Jeremy Buckingham, a lawmaker from the Greens party, said the man spoke to him on Monday at state parliament about legal issues.
“He said he had information he wanted to show the attorney general. He did not clearly articulate his issues,” Buckingham told parliament yesterday.
During the standoff, Australian broadcasters showed footage of the man looking from a second-floor window shirtless and wearing the kind of wig worn by judges and lawyers in Australian courts. At one point he spat on the wig.
He also swung a glass bottle like a hammer to smash a plate-sized hole in the office window. He yelled through the hole and threw the bottle, then a telephone handset. He extended his hand from the broken window to make a peace sign then threw out a note. Clifford declined to comment on its contents.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was