Hamish McNeilly/Stuff
The man at the centre of a standoff with armed police in Mornington, Dunedin.
A man has been taken into custody after an eight-hour standoff with armed police in Dunedin.
Police rushed to Mornington’s Neidpath Rd about 3.55pm on Friday, cordoning off the road and clearing houses as a man took to the roof of home and refused to get down, a witness said.
The man was allegedly armed.
The witness, who lives next to the property and did not want to be named, said she was on the phone with another neighbour, who was crying because she had heard the commotion and saw the police.
“Next thing I’m on the phone with her andI hear the cops say to her, ‘Put your hands on your head,’ and she had guns pointed to her head.”
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Police told the woman the man on the roof had a gun, so she needed to run, the witness said.
She said the home the man was on top of was known to be a halfway house.
Police with rifles could be seen controlling the cordon on Neidpath Rd, between Cooper St and Glen Rd until it ended shortly after midnight when the man was taken into custody.
Hamish McNeilly/Stuff
Armed police took a man into custody after eight hours.
Some residents were told to find alternative accommodation due to the armed standoff, a man said after he tried to return home at 8.45pm, but was turned away.
A Stuff reporter at the scene said the man appeared to be yelling about immigration and passports. There had been some rain in Dunedin on Friday evening and the man had slipped slightly on the roof several times, the reporter said.
There were no reports of injuries.
Hamish McNeilly/Stuff
Firefighters arrive to help police handle a man on a roof in Mornington, Dunedin.
