Police officers arrest a man who held his daughter hostage next to the Parramata court building near Sydney on Tuesday.
SYDNEY, Australia - 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 Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said bomb technicians were examining the backpack to see whether any explosive devices were in it.
- A police tactical team forced its way into the office after negotiations with the man began to crumble, Clifford said.
- "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," Clifford said.
- "He's currently assisting police with their ongoing inquires."
- Police have not released the man's name or described the series of demands he issued. He is expected to appear in court today.
- 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. DClifford previously declined to comment on reports the man was arrested at a government building after he was involved in an incident at the state parliament in Sydney.
Source: Agency
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