Armed gardai stormed an office building in the city centre to free a number of people who were held hostage by a petrol-doused disturbed man.

The horrifying incident happened at a Direct Provision Centre on Hatch Street just after half past three this afternoon.

Members of the Dublin based Armed Support Unit were called to the building by terrified occupants.

A source said: “The situation was very fraught and there were people trapped inside the building – they needed to be rescued.

“As the guards arrived they could hear the man breaking up the building inside – the ASU members didn’t pause, they put a plan together and stormed the building.

“They saved the lives of the people inside and were forced to use a less lethal bean bag round to subdue the man. He is being assessed under the Mental Health Act now.”

A Garda spokesman confirmed the incident and said: "Gardaí were called to the scene of an incident in a building on Hatch Street at approximately 3:40pm, a man in his 30s was arrested at the scene and detained under the Metal Health legislation a short time later.

"The man was taken to Kevin Street Station where he was assessed and has since been removed to hospital.

"Some damage was caused inside the building during the incident. Owing to the nature of the incident [we] will not be commenting further."

The incident is the latest in a string of calls involving ASU in which the unit brought potentially deadly incidents to an end without loss of life.

It includes an incident in which ASU members used a less lethal device to disarm a handgun wielding thug.

They are commanded under the Special Tactics and Operational Command and have been instrumental confronting criminal gangs.

Their role dictates that they also take part in high risk warrants and prisoner escorts.

The unit is the latest armed policing model and they back up their unarmed uniform garda colleagues on operations.

The model was launched in Cork and Limerick in 2008 and members undergo a three month training period.

They are based on a regional policing basis but it is hoped that they will be in every division in the country in the coming years.

They are designed to augment the work of the elite Emergency Response Unit which is the country’s foremost tactical armed unit.

It is envisaged they will replace the use of plain clothes officers gardai who undergo a week long gun course on armed patrols in the coming years.

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They are deployed with less lethal weapons like tasers and firearms that fire beanbag rounds, they also are specialists in breaching techniques and tactical responses to dangerous incidents.