Police in Australia responded to reports of a man screaming "why don't you die?" by dispatching multiple units to a home in Perth.

But officers were soon told to stand down when they found a man who “had only been trying to kill a spider", according to the police log published online.

The alarm was raised when a passer-by heard a screaming child and a man repeatedly shouting.

In a tweet on Wednesday morning Wanneroo police shared their account of the unusual incident.

It cited the man’s “serious fear” of spiders, and added that there had been no injuries at the scene apart from those sustained by the spider.