Odd News

Naked man draws crowd in armed Aussie standoff

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-20 08:14

SYDNEY - An armed man wearing nothing but a holster and standing on top of a billboard brought an Australian city to a standstill during a lengthy altercation with police.

The shaven-headed man, brandishing a small pistol, drew a tactical response team, a police helicopter, a fire truck, ambulances and crowds of onlookers as authorities shut down part of central Perth, in Western Australia, on Saturday.

"He's just ranting and raving at this stage, nothing that's really ... making a great deal of sense," Inspector Neil Blair told reporters at the scene.

"It's not the actions of a rational person to be up there naked in the middle of Perth with what appears to be a handgun."

The man, who appeared on the billboard around lunchtime, finally put down his weapon and surrendered to police in the early evening.