Police on Tuesday evacuated the heart of a Sydney business district after a man claiming to have a bomb burst into a law firm with his young daughter in tow.
Negotiators were trying to convince the middle-aged man to give himself up as roads in the Parramatta area of western Sydney were shut and workers cleared from the scene, which is near the city's Family Court precinct.
The man entered the legal offices with a girl in her early teens and demanded to see a person who was unknown to staff, a clerk told reporters. He claimed to have a bomb in his backpack.
“He had made threats in relation to a backpack,” Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford said, adding that his motive was unclear.
“We have police negotiators on the scene. They have been talking to the man for some hours now. He had made a number of demands.
“We are doing the best we can to secure a peaceful resolution.”
Clifford said they were treating the bomb claims seriously.
“We don't know exactly what is in that backpack. We have to assume that what he is saying is true at this stage.”
He added that the girl was said to be coping “as well as she can be”.
“Our priority is a peaceful resolution, firstly to secure the release of the young girl, and then the man himself,” he said.
Television footage showed the middle-aged man without a shirt on wearing a lawyer's wig looking out an office window.
A clerk at the law firm told Australian Associated Press the man wanted to see a particular person who was not known to the company.
“He said he was looking for a certain person,” said the woman, who declined to be named. “I told him he wasn't here, I told him he is not a client of ours, I do not know him.
“When I told him there was nobody here by that name he went up to the next level of the building then came back down... and he asked for the person again.
“I said, 'I'm saying he's not here'. He then went to the front of the building and said 'call the Attorney General's department, call (this person) and tell them I've got a bomb in my backpack.'“ - AFP