An Australian man triggered an emergency police response after his noisy exchange with a spider startled a passerby into reporting what they thought was a violent disturbance to the authorities, according to local media.

A neighbour was walking past a house in the west coast city of Perth on Wednesday when they heard a man inside repeatedly yelling “why don’t you die?” and a toddler screaming. The neighbour then called the police emergency number, according to media reports.

The tweet showed what appeared to be a law enforcement communication log that included the initial emergency call, followed by an update 15 minutes later that said: “Police spoke with all parties, who advised that husband had only been trying to kill a spider (has serious fear of spiders).”

The log said the man “apologised for inconvenience to police” and that there were “no injuries sighted (except to spider)” and “no further police involvement required”.

The reports did not identify the man, or the type of spider involved.