Australia | Police disable, arrest man in airport standoff

A man who falsely claimed to have a bomb and menaced a woman with a knife forced the evacuation of Brisbane International Airport for more than two hours in an emergency that police described yesterday as elaborate and terrifying.

Police ended the standoff late Saturday by shooting the 50-year-old man with non-lethal bean bag shotgun rounds and arresting him. There were no injuries reported, and police said the emergency was not related to terrorism.

Australia’s third busiest airport reported that the disruption had caused delays to arrivals and departures of up to three hours.

The incident began in the terminal’s food court when the man pulled a knife on a screaming woman and placed a fake bomb on a table. Hundreds of panicked travelers fled the scene.

“It was a blood-curdling little scream, and she just bolted across the forecourt,” a man, who was not identified, told Nine Network television.

Another man, who also was not identified, told Nine: “He had one knife to start with, then when he looped back around he pulled out a second knife.”

“They were big carving knife-like things. There weren’t normal little knives, they were big,” the same witness added.

A woman, who was not identified, told Nine that the sound of the woman screaming sent people running. Somebody yelled that a man was armed with a knife or gun, she said.

“I just grabbed my kids, and I just ran out the door,” she said.

The man’s first language was Arabic and an Arabic-speaking police officer was at the scene within minutes to negotiate, Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said.

The man had gone to extraordinary lengths “to create a perception of risk, threat and fear,” Stewart said.

Police opened fire with bean bag rounds after the man claimed to have a bomb, Police Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming said. He was arrested soon after.

“His behavior elevated such that they were quite concerned about him, and some bean bag rounds were discharged and they struck him in the torso,” Fleming told reporters.

The man, from Gold Coast city near Brisbane, was examined by paramedics and had “no significant injuries,” Fleming said. AP