Police are hunting a wheelchair-bound homeless man who once held up a bank and threatened to blow up the same building just days after he was released from jail.
Sean Nicholas was sentenced to 14 months behind bars in December after taking a homemade bomb to the Central Park building in Auckland, New Zealand, last July.
The 46-year-old told terrified bystanders he would detonate the device, before he set alight a wick protruding from his suitcase when police arrived, Stuff reported.
The wick stopped burning when it reached the suitcase and Nicholas was arrested – in his wheelchair – without causing any harm.
Police are hunting Sean Nicholas, a wheelchair-bound homeless man who once held up a bank and threatened to blow up the same building just days after he was released from jail
A bomb expert later concluded the device would not have exploded, but could have released toxic fumes.
Just 11 days earlier, Nicholas had been released from jail after he held up a Westpac bank in the same building in 2013.
The dramatic armed siege lasted five hours, with dozens of people in surrounding buildings told by police to barricade themselves inside.
‘Sean, you’re surrounded. Sean, we need to finish this now,’ police negotiators said at the time, according to the New Zealand Herald.
‘Sean, you’re surrounded. Sean, we need to finish this now. Put the gun down. Put the firearm down, come outside and we can help you’.
The dramatic siege reportedly ended when Nicholas’ father pleaded with his son to give himself up.
Nicholas was jailed for 14 months in December after taking a homemade bomb to the Central Park building in Auckland
On Friday, police issued a appeal to help find the 46-year-old, who is ‘wanted for arrest’.
Police refused to give any further details, and it is unclear why he isn’t in jail after his December sentence over his threat to blow up the Central Park building.
‘Nicholas has a physical disability and uses a wheelchair and police want to urgently locate him as he poses a significant risk to himself,’ a police spokesman said.
‘Nicholas was last seen on Wednesday 21 March at around 8pm when he was dropped off in New Lynn.’
The spokesman said the 46-year-old was thought to be staying in temporary accommodation or ‘sleeping rough in the New Lynn area’.
Just 11 days before the bomb threat, Nicholas had been released from jail after he held up a Westpac bank in the same building in 2013