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BIG GUNS: Armed Offenders Squad members attend the incident in Tauranga where a man was threatening to blow himself up. He was also demanding to speak to Prime Minister Helen Clark. IAIN McGREGOR/Waikato Times

Tauranga hotel siege ends in arrest

The man was arrested at 12.30am after armed police entered the Devonport Towers building in Devonport Road in the central city.

The man did not resist police and there were no injuries to him or police.

Armed police who arrested the man found a fake bomb in the hotel, said Bay of Plenty district commander, Superintendent Gary Smith.

The 57-year-old man was due to appear in Tauranga District Court today on various charges of burglary and threatening to kill and/or causing grievous bodily harm.

The police investigation into the incident will continue and other charges may follow.

Police lifted their cordons this morning having kept them in place after the arrest because many businesses were left unlocked when police ordered the evacuation of an area within 200 metres of the hotel.

Mr Smith said police were grateful for the co-operation of people who were evacuated soon after the man entered the hotel shortly before midday and told staff he wanted to speak to Prime Minister Helen Clark.

"We know that a lot of people were inconvenienced and we are very grateful for their response to this situation.

"People would appreciate we had a very difficult job to do under trying circumstances and co-operation from the public has helped us immensely," Mr Smith said.

The man was on the fifth floor of the hotel and for hours armed police and negotiators talked to him before he was arrested.

The man, who had been described as a backpacker hostel's "perfect guest", had tried checking in to the city's top hotel but was told there were no rooms.

The 57-year-old man, from Slovenia in eastern Europe, took what was feared to be suitcase bombs into the hotel.

He was understood to have spent several months battling the Immigration Service to stay in New Zealand.

Guests of the 38-room hotel and apartment residents of the associated 16-storied Devonport Towers were ordered out. Police also ordered the evacuation of hundreds of workers and customers of shops and other businesses covering about 40 per cent of Tauranga's central business district.

Staff of the hotel were confronted by the man about 11am when he arrived with two large suitcases and a backpack and asked for a room.

Hotel owner Paul Bowker said when he was told there were no vacancies he "got agitated and said he wanted to speak to Helen".

Staff said they assumed he meant the Prime Minister and he was ushered into a conference room, to keep him from other guests.

Devonport Towers conference manager Bronwyn Pretorius said she had been called down from her office to show the man the conference room, which he claimed he wanted to use that day.

"After taking him up there, I realised something was definitely wrong, because it's the first time I had anyone wanting to speak to the president," she told National Radio today.

"I just got him down to reception as soon as possible so I could speak to my manager and get her involved in this situation.

"She told me to take up him to the room so she could get the police involved and see what they could do."

Ms Pretorius said the man appeared very "frustrated".

"He just kept on the whole time that he had sent quite a few letters to the president, to the prime minister, Helen Clark and not got a response, as well as to the NZQA and immigration services.

"It just sounded like he was quite frustrated and wanted them to acknowledge his request."

Armed police were called.

Inspector Murray Lewis said at 3pm negotiators had established "a really good rapport" with the man, but it was another nine hours before the room was stormed.

The man had been living for three months at the Harbourside Backpackers Hostel, not far from the hotel, in the Strand, where he checked in as Jacob Sollivan.

Hostel owner Sarah Meadows, whose 30 guests were ordered out, said he was a "lovely man".

She said he was probably frustrated because he wanted to stay in New Zealand.

"I knew he was having trouble with Immigration, I didn't know to what extent, but he was a perfect guest. He was not aggressive, very polite and always paid his rent on time."

Ms Clark was briefed but not told officially the man wanted to talk to her.

Waikato police spokeswoman Kris McGehan said negotiators never stopped talking to the man.

Dozens of shops, offices, banks, restaurants and bars lining the southern half of the Strand along the waterfront, were evacuated although those north of Wharf Street overflowed with evacuees.