The Brisbane CBD went into lock-down earlier today as police evacuated the Queen Street Mall, the city’s major retail and business hub, and declared an emergency situation after a man was seen screaming and carrying a gun. Workers and shoppers were held inside the surrounding buildings, and police cordoned off the area preventing motorists and pedestrians from entering, while police officers in bullet-proof vests were engaged in a standoff with the gunman who, it is alleged, was pointing the gun at his neck.
ABC news confirmed that the stand-off “came to an end at around 12:40pm when two loud bangs were heard” and the gunman was detained by police after he was subdued using “non-lethal rounds” of ammunition which, according to The Courier Mail, included bean bag rounds and rubber bullets. Job well done, Queensland Police force.
Crazy shit such as city-clearing gun sieges are the stuff of movies featuring Bruce Willis and aren’t exactly par for the course in any of Brisbane’s shopping districts, so it was fascinating to follow up-to-the-minute coverage via the ABC News Twitter feed (ABC reporter, Dea Clark, happened to be in a Queen Street Mall bank at the time of shooting and provided an amazing running commentary of the events as they happened), and kept abreast of the situation from social media feeds of locals (“The most surprising thing is people still shop in the Myer Centre”, commented one).
As we saw with the floods of 2010-11 (as well as the 2013 ones) Queenslanders are a resilient lot, and it wasn’t long before the siege became fodder for piggyback lols…
I wonder if the gunman in Queen St mall is just waiting for a mate.
— Michael Beveridge (@mickyb273) March 8, 2013
If there was a better time to commit some crimes in the Brisbane CBD I can’t think of it.
— Rohan Irvine (@Rohboto) March 8, 2013
Looking at the teen punks on Queen St just standing around, waiting to be let back in so that they can get back to just standing around.
— James (@jamestinniswood) March 8, 2013
