Tottenham Court Road siege ends in arrest

 
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Justin Davenport30 April 2012

A man who brought central London to a halt after he stormed offices and threatened to explode a bomb was arrested after a four hour stand-off this afternoon.

The man - said by witnesses to be Michael Green - was arrested by armed police after the siege in Tottenham Court Road.

Central London was brought to a halt just after midday as police surrounded the 49-year-old who had gas cannisters strapped to his chest.

Snipers were stationed around the fifth-floor Tottenham Court Road office and police negotiators were brought in to talk to the man.

It is not known if he gave himself up or if armed officer stormed the building.

Police said they were searching the entire building but there was no sign of any hostages.

Thousands were evacuated as a huge 300-metre area was cleared. Shoppers and pedestrians said a 49-year-old man was hurling computers, filing cabinets and TVs from the fifth floor window of an office building.

Police evacuated buildings around the offices of the company near Heal’s store which offers HGV driving classes.

An onlooker said a man walked into the offices of Advantage, a logistics company which offers HGV courses. She said he had threatened to blow himself up before taking four hostages, including the company director.

It was claimed that the man failed an HGV training course three times and wanted his money back.

Abby Baafi, 27, the head of training and operations at AdvantageHGV, a company which offers HGV courses, said a man came into her offices strapped with ‘gasoline cylinders’.

She said: “I was in the office when someone came. I recognised him. He just turned up strapped with gasoline cylinders. He threatened to blow up the office. He doesn’t care about his life, he doesn’t care about anything or anybody. He was just going to blow up everybody.”

She added she was one of his targets but when she said her name was not Abby and that she was four months pregnant, he let her go.

Alan Edwards, who works in the building said he was aggrieved because he had been denied an HGV licence.

On the website of the company it states : “We take the hassle out of becoming an HGV Driver.”

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: ‘It is at an office building, where there is a man causing a disturbance by throwing items out of a fifth floor window.

‘There are negotiators there.’

Speaking from Tottenham Court Road, Alan Edwards, who works in the building said rumours were that he was aggrieved because he had been denied an HGV licence.

The man apparently stormed into the logistics office yelling: ‘I have nothing more to live for.’

Stephen Hull is executive editor of the Huffington Post UK website, which is in the same building, although unconnected to the attack, which is though to involve a logistics business.

He posted on Twitter: ‘Just interviewed woman who was target of attack. Man came into logistics office strapped up with 4 canisters threatening to blow himself up.

‘Abby Baafi told us she told suspect she was three months pregnant to escape.

‘Abby told us she’d met suspect before. He said he didn’t have anything to live for and wanted to blow the place up.’

One eye-witness described how at first passers-by cheered as he started throwing items into the street.

Nick Horan, the managing director of the firm Catalyst which has offices next door, said He was throwing everything out of the window from metal filing cabinets to computers and a big flat screen TV.

“Armed police led four people with their hands up out of the building but it has all gone quiet now.

“It sounds like another sign of our times, someone who is at the end of their tether, he has probably been made redundant.”

Police said they were called to an incident at 11.59am to reports of a man “causing a disturbance.”

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