A man has been charged after Queensland airport locked down for more than two hours on Saturday night

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A man has been charged after Brisbane Airport’s international terminal was shut down when he allegedly threatened a woman with a knife.

A 50-year-old Surfers Paradise man has been charged with one count each of contravene a domestic violence order, stalking with a weapon, stealing and serious assault police.

He has also been charged with two counts each of making a false statement which can be inferred that there is a plan to damage or destroy a commonwealth air navigation facility, bomb hoax, and common assault.

Queensland Police say the incident was not terror related.

The incident began just before 9pm on Saturday in the terminal’s food court, when the man allegedly pulled out a knife and placed a metal object on a table, claiming it was a bomb, after an argument with a woman.

He then chased the woman, a family member, while brandishing the knife, witnesses told Brisbane’s Sunday Mail.

It triggered a major response from the Australian Federal Police and local police who locked down the airport for more than two hours and halted the airport train services.

Just after 9pm, police confronted the man and fired non-lethal beanbag rounds at him, at which point he surrendered to officers.

“A beanbag round was shot at a man, in the abdomen. It spun him around and he decided to surrender to police,” a police source told the Sunday Mail. No one was injured.

The 50-year-old Surfers Paradise man was reportedly at the airport with his wife, mother-in-law and two children who were to catch a flight.

In a related incident, a Surfers Paradise car park and the area around it was cordoned off, with police reportedly finding a dangerous device.

An hour later, a Surfers Paradise car park near where the man lives was cordoned off and the area evacuated, as police inspected a vehicle.

“There is a vehicle linked to him that is here (in Surfers) and it looked like he had some sort of detonator,” a police officer told the newspaper.

The exclusion zone was lifted at 1.40am local time on Sunday. The man will appear in Brisbane magistrates court on Monday.