A man has reportedly been arrested standing off with police in the Western Sydney suburb of Ashcroft, armed with three guns and a self-made explosive.
The major police operation ended around 7.30am this morning after police conducted an almost eight hour siege in front of the apartment block.
Police were drawn to the Ashcroft area last night around midnight where they were confronted with an heavily armed and ‘agitated’ man, who was reportedly ‘screaming’ on Ashcroft’s Maxwells Ave.
“What I first saw was the gunman on the corner of the street with police about to shoot him,” a witness told 9news.com.au.
“They set the dog on him but he had a gun and said he had a bomb so they backed off – but they very nearly shot him.”
After facing off with police for ‘around five minutes’, the man fled into a nearby residential complex, where he was holed up inside a unit for hours.
NSW Police media confirmed that they have received reports of an ‘improvised explosive device’, but have not been able to confirm.
Several police units were dispatched to the area, including a Tactical Response Group and an armoured Bear Cat (Ballistic Engineered Armoured Response Counter Attack Truck).
It is believed that no one has been harmed in the incident, and police have taken the armed man into custody.
Although his identity has not been revealed, the man was described as ‘skinny’, in his 40s or 50s, ‘with scruffy hair’, by local witnesses.
