Warwick in lockdown

Police on Tuesday concluded the enforcement of a lockdown around one of the core residential districts of Warwick, bounded by Wood Street (the highway), Dragon Street, Grafton Street and Gore Street. Parts of Warwick had a surreal atmosphere with alarms, and announcements to lock doors and stay out of sight broadcasted.

The incident began at 10pm on Monday when police revealed they were negotiating with what they believed to be an armed man in a house in Wantley Street inside the exclusion zone, with residents urged to stay indoors. The incident ended at 8.15am when specialist police entered the residence and located the body of a 38-year-old man. No reports of shots being fired have emerged at this stage. The incident had been triggered 13 hours earlier when reports came through of an armed man in the vicinity. One of our staff wit- nessed a woman talking to police, holding a young child and suffering what appeared to be an injured knee. The woman was clearly distraught. The incident comes just a day after a man was found dead of self-inflicted wounds at a residence in Kirwan near Townsville, after a siege which also led to an exclusion zone being enforced. The enforcement zone was largely residential, with relatively few businesses affected.