There were fears a man at the centre of a three-hour siege at Unanderra on Thursday may have been holding a hostage, according to police.
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Authorities, including police negotiators and heavily armed officers, swooped on the Lowanna Place address after a number of triple-0 calls about 11.30am from a man saying he was armed with a gun in Port Kembla.
Inspector Brian Pedersen said officers from Lake Illawarra and Wollongong commands saturated Port Kembla, but no-one was located.
‘‘Further phone calls on the triple-o line were received and as a result of inquiries police attended an address in the Unanderra area where they sighted a male person enter a house,’’ Insp Pedersen said.
‘‘They’ve attended the house, commenced to speak with the male [and] he has issued some direct threats towards the police.’’
Officers retreated about 12.10pm and specialist police were contacted when the man refused to come out.
‘‘We had police specialist negotiators on scene and they were speaking with him,’’ he said.
The 27-year-old man, from Port Kembla, emerged soon after 3pm with a number of officers escorting him to a waiting police car.
Officers weren’t required to enter the house.
‘‘It is understood that, as a result of the negotiations, he has given himself up,’’ Insp Pedersen said at the scene.
‘‘He was in the house by himself, we initially had fears there may have been other people in the house, however, the house has been cleared.’’
A search of the house failed to locate a firearm and no weapon was seen during the stand-off.
The man was in custody at Lake Illawarra police station late on Thursday.
He was refused bail by police and will front Port Kembla Local Court on Friday charged with offences relating to the siege and a separate outstanding revocation of parole warrant.
The incident was confined to a single house and Insp Pedersen said there was no need for community alarm.
‘‘We always plan for the worst and work backwards,’’ he said.
‘‘Our main objective is to contain and negotiate with people.
‘‘We like to achieve a peaceful resolution on all these sorts of things and today it was a perfect example of that.’’
Lowanna Place – a no-through road – was closed while the police operation unfolded and a command post set up at its intersection with Mianga Crescent.
