Driver Of The Crashing Car Of The Russian Consulate Building In Sydney Arrested

JAKARTA - A man was arrested after crashing his car into the gates of a Russian consulate in Sydney. The police diplomatic protection unit responded to a request for assistance from the Russian consulate after an unauthorized vehicle was on the front page, a spokesman for the Australian Federal Police said.

As reported by Reuters on Monday, September 1, the New South Wales Police said officers responded shortly after 8 a.m. local time and tried to talk to the driver before he rammed his vehicle into the consulate gate on the outskirts of Sydney, Woolllahra.

An eyewitness who witnessed the incident said he saw the car breaking through the gate after the driver was ordered to get out of the vehicle.

"The police kept asking him to get out of the car. He didn't get out. They took out a firearm," he said, refusing to name him.

"It happened quite dramatically on Monday morning," he said.

Television footage from Australia's television network, Sky News and Nine, showed a white SUV with a broken window left beside the Russian flagpole at the consulate grounds.

"Get out of the car now," the police shouted to the man in the car in the yard, according to an eye-witness video of the incident seen by Reuters.

A 39-year-old man was arrested and a 24-year-old policeman suffered an injury to his hand, police said.

Tim Enright, a construction worker who was on the roof of a nearby building, said he saw a police officer taking a photo of a car parked near the consulate at around 8 a.m.

He then said he heard sirens and helicopters arriving at the scene.

The pickup truck then carried a white SUV from the consulate yard, a Reuters witness said.

The consulate was briefly closed before reopening, said the men behind the police ranks who were undergoing a visa meeting on Monday.

"There are no current or upcoming threats to consulates or local communities," the Australian Federal Police said in a statement.