Explosives Fear in Australian Siege

Police were last night surrounding a hotel on Australia's Gold Coast after a man barricaded himself in one of the rooms and was said to have explosives and possibly hostages inside with him.

Police cordoned off the Grand Hotel in Labrador, where the man, thought to be in his early 40s, had sealed himself inside the room early in the evening.

He is believed to have tried to lure a woman into the room on the 12th floor of the hotel on the pretext of getting her to babysit. She was hit with a piece of wood, but managed to escape and alert the police.

Three floors of the high-rise building were evacuated after fears were raised that he might have booby-trapped the room with explosives.

"We are very confident that he has made a device from easily available commercial chemicals," a Queensland state police inspector, Rick Wall, said.

It is also suspected that the man may have one or more hostages, but police were unable to confirm this.

Police said the door to the hotel room had been sealed shut, possibly with nails and a foam material.

A second woman was stopped from entering the room by police after she had been called to the hotel.

Early this morning, the emergency services noticed flames through one of the hotel windows after it was thought the man had lit a fire.