Police Rescue Girl, 12, From Law Office Where Dad Allegedly Made Bomb Threat
After a standoff that lasted much of the day today in a legal district of downtown Sydney, authorities in the major Australian city rescued a 12-year-old girl who reportedly had been held by her father, 52, who claimed to be carrying a bomb in a backpack as he occupied a local law office.
Police were seen with a chainsaw, a battering ram and an ax before they emerged with the girl, according to the Mercury and the New York Post. At least 100 people were evacuated from nearby buildings.
A receptionist at Arthurs Phillip Chambers said the father, who was not named, was not a client of any of the barristers at the law firm. A number of family, children’s and trial courts are located nearby, and it wasn’t clear whether the man may have been involved in a matter in one of them.
