A siege that began early evening on Sunday (27th November) has now only just ended in the Tasmanian suburb of Moonah, north of Hobart.
Authorities were called the the home after reports of a dog attack at approximately 5:30pm last night. The report said that the dog belonging to the occupant of 9 Maple Avenue had attacked another man.
When police arrived at the house, the 47-year-old resident confronted responding officers, smashing out front windows of the house and firing blasts from a shotgun.
Officers were negotiating with the man all throughout the night, saying that they held great concern for his welfare.
Armed man spends night holed up in home in #Hobart suburb of Moonah, #Tasmania pic.twitter.com/crLFFteMaX
— Alex Jackson (@al3xjackson) November 27, 2016
Neighbouring houses were all evacuated, and one neighbour said he knew of reports that the man has large amounts of weaponry and explosives in the house, including gelignite.
Neighbour Rob Newitt told 7HOFM,
“There was a young girl there who obviously knew the guy and had a message that she was talking about.It confirmed the fact that he had a shotgun, which I believe I saw earlier, because of the size of the barrel…plenty of ammo, and he had explosives in the place.”
7HOFM reports that all attempts to coax the man out of his house throughout the night proved fruitless, and random shots of gunfire have been heard from the premises.
Video footage shows the man inside his house as the neighbourhood is evacuated from their homes:
A police statement issued early this morning says,
“We are trying to safely resolve the matter as soon as we can.”
Shots fired during Hobart siege. https://t.co/MitOO7vBxV #Moonah #7News https://t.co/izeIYa3NlT
— 7 News Sydney (@7NewsSydney) November 27, 2016
Tasmania Police published a message to their Facebook approximately half an hour ago (at time of writing), saying that a peaceful resolution has been founded with the 47-year-old man, who is now in police custody.
Source: 7HOFM.
Photo: Twitter / @al3xjackson.
