Images circulating on social media showed a man, dressed in red, holding what looks like a large caliber weapon under his chin, on a sidewalk surrounding the United Nations headquarters compound, surrounded by police, at the level from 42nd Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan.
“We have a man under arrest,” a spokeswoman for the NYPD, the New York police, told AFP around 2:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. in Belgium) after the incident started in the middle of the morning.
The man “threatens to kill himself”, had indicated earlier a UN official speaking anonymously, while the police explained to be “in the process of establishing a dialogue” with the individual, described as ” a white man in his sixties “. The police did not immediately give details of the man’s motives.
The closure of the headquarters did not cause any disruption in the buildings where the Security Council was continuing a meeting devoted to Iraq. The enclosure, known for its large glass building, borders New York’s East River on Manhattan Island.
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