Washington: A man dressed in a panda suit has been shot and wounded by a police sniper after he entered a Baltimore television station saying he had a bomb.

The man, who also wore a surgical mask, was shot as he approached police officers outside the television station on Thursday and refused to comply with their order to take his hands out of the pockets of the panda suit.

A police robot later was used to remove the man's clothes, and police determined that the device was inert, consisting of chocolate bars wrapped in aluminum foil connected by wires.

The man was hospitalised in serious but stable condition early Thursday, and police said he was expected to survive. Police did not release his identity, but said he was 25 and thought to be from Howard County in Maryland. Police were investigating a motive.