Psychiatric check-up for 'bomber'

A man who walked into a Papakura service station and claimed to have a bomb is being kept in custody and will undergo a psychiatric assessment.

The 52-year-old beneficiary has been charged with disorderly behaviour, criminal nuisance, causing loss by deception, threatening harm to property and/or people, and reckless disregard for the safety of others.

A District Court judge held a special hearing at the man's bedside in Middlemore Hospital yesterday.

He is recovering from injuries suffered when he was apprehended.

The man did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody to reappear in court next month.

The man walked into the Shell Roselands Service Station at 9am on Wednesday and told two staff he was protesting against police.

He ordered the workers and two customers to leave and locked himself inside the shop for more than five hours, refusing to speak to police.

A robot was used to break a window to the shop and teargas was thrown inside to flush the man out.

He walked on to the forecourt naked and was subdued by a police dog before being arrested.

A backpack the man had been wearing was blown up but was later found not to contain a bomb.

Papakura Mayor John Robertson said several hundred businesses were affected when police evacuated the area.