Man threatening to blow himself up jailed for a year

DUBAI // A man who threatened police officers with a leaking gas cylinder in one hand and a lighter in the other has been sentenced to one year in prison.

The officers confronted the Emirati TA, an unemployed 47-year-old, after a Filipino flagged down their patrol car at about 7.30am on May 5 claiming he had been raped by the man in a house in Bur Dubai. He said he had been lured to the house on the pretence that the Emirati was a police officer.

When the patrol car arrived at the house, the Emirati was standing outside carrying a gas cylinder.

He opened the cylinder's valve and held up a lighter, threatening the officers that if they came any nearer he would ignite the gas. He also told the officers he had taken drugs, and had both Hepatitis and HIV.

The officers kept their distance and calmed the man down. He eventually put down the gas cylinder and left, but was found unconscious shortly afterwards in a nearby restaurant.

salamir@thenational.ae