A police operation involving specialist officers and hostage negotiators in Sydney’s south-west has now closed following a dramatic scene.<\/p>\n
The operation began on Friday morning after officers from the Bankstown Area Command and specialist resources were deployed at Wollongbar Avenue in Panania.<\/p>\n
Police sources told the ABC a member of the public reported seeing four people, one of whom appeared to be carrying a gun, enter a home on the street.<\/p>\n
It was understood the four persons of interest had likely left the home, but officers initially believed there was still someone left inside the residence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Officers initially believed there was still someone left inside the residence. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Bearcat armoured vehicles and multiple officers were on the scene, including armed police on the roof of a neighbouring property.<\/p>\n
“The public is urged to avoid the area. No further information is available,” NSW Police said in a brief statement.<\/p>\n
By mid-morning, the operation closed after specialist officers completed a sweep of the home and found no one inside.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bearcat armoured vehicles and multiple officers were on the scene. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Neighbours ‘concerned’ by situation<\/p>\n
One resident told the ABC he came to the street to find a heavy police presence.<\/p>\n
“The neighbours and people were concerned with what is going on,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a pretty peaceful neighbourhood otherwise \u2026 the minute you hear something like that [police negotiators] you’re already concerned.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Locals watched on as armed officers took position on a neighbouring roof. (ABC News: Ethan Rix)<\/p>\n
Another resident said a separate police raid had occurred nearby recently.<\/p>\n
“It’s kind of scary \u2014 especially guns.”<\/p>\n
There were no reports of any injuries, and it was understood the residents of the home had been accounted for.<\/p>\n
The site remained a crime scene with investigations ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A police operation involving specialist officers and hostage negotiators in Sydney’s south-west has now closed following a dramatic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,2733,118902,118903,118901,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-186468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-nsw","11":"tag-nsw-police-operation","12":"tag-panania","13":"tag-police-operation","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}