At the time of this report, Thai police remain in a tense stand-off with an armed former police officer, who has been holding up in a house in Bangkok’ Sai Mai area since yesterday afternoon.

The man, identified as “Inspector Karn”, is reported to have fired several shots into the air and was heard shouting, sparking fear among people living in the neighbourhood.

A SWAT team rushed to the scene at about noon yesterday to investigate. The police tried to persuade Inspector Karn to come out, only to be fired at from the house.

A few hours later, police ordered the evacuation of the neighbourhood as they tried to talk the man into surrendering.  His son and mother were brought to the scene by the police to plead with him to give up, but without success.

The stand-off continued through the 2am hour, when police fired several tear gas canisters into the house in the hope of forcing the man out, but to no avail.

Stun grenades were also fired into the house at about 5.30am as police pleaded with him to surrender, but, again, to no avail.

A drone was employed to monitor the situation in the house and it was discovered that Inspector Karn was on the second floor of the house and appeared to be nervous, with a mattress, drinking water bottles and cigarette butts scattered over the floor.

Police said that Inspector Karn appears to have a psychiatric disorder.

Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol, the deputy national police chief, said that police will not resort to the use of force to disarm the man, but will try to persuade him to surrender peacefully.