By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) -A man was arrested on Monday after ramming his car into the gates of the Russian consulate in Sydney, Australian police said.
The police diplomatic protection unit responded to a request for assistance from the Russian consulate after an unauthorised vehicle was parked in the driveway, an Australian Federal Police spokesperson said in a statement.
New South Wales Police said its officers responded shortly after 8 a.m. (2200 GMT) and attempted to speak to the driver before he drove his vehicle into the gates of the consulate in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra.
A neighbour who witnessed the incident said he saw the car force its way through the gates after the driver was instructed to step out of the vehicle.
“The policemen continued to ask him to get out of the car. He didn’t get out of the car. They drew their firearms,” he said, declining to give his name.
“It was quite dramatic on a Monday morning.”
Television footage from Australian networks Sky News and Nine showed a white SUV with a smashed window abandoned next to a Russian flagpole on the consulate grounds.
“Get out of the car now,” police shouted at the man in the car inside the grounds, according to an eyewitness video of the incident viewed by Reuters.
A 39-year-old man was arrested and a 24-year-old constable received an injury to his hand, police said.
A person who answered a phone at the consulate declined to comment on the incident.
Tim Enright, a construction worker who was on the roof of a nearby building at the time, said he saw a police officer taking photos of a car parked near the consulate around 8 a.m.
He said he then heard sirens and a helicopter arrived at the scene.
A flatbed truck later took a white SUV from the grounds of the consulate, a Reuters witness said.
The consulate was briefly closed before reopening, said people behind a police cordon who had Monday visa appointments.
“There is no current or impending threat to the consulate or the local community,” the Australian Federal Police statement added.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham and Praveen Menon in Sydney; Writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Kim Coghill, Tom Hogue and Saad Sayeed)
