SUB-MACHINE guns were trained on a West Bank house in an armed siege last week.
Police surrounded it after a man barricaded himself into his girlfriend's home on Mersey Road for 28 hours.
The man was reported to be armed but police Supt Kevin Mayhew would only say the police had 'information he had a sharp object'.
Police said the man was wanted for motoring offences and for a domestic incident with his girlfriend two days before.
He locked out his girlfriend and used household objects to barricade himself in when police arrived.
The front door was covered by a policeman with a sub machine gun and another with a baton gun, used to fire rubber bullets. They were supported by more police in riot gear.
The man alternated between angry confrontations and calm discussions as police negotiators shouted up to him at the window at back of the house.
The police asked for news of the siege to be kept off the TV, radio and internet in case if affected the negotiations.
People were hanging out their windows trying to listen in as the police assured the man they wouldn't hurt him.
He went quiet and was apparently asleep. Police sidled up to the house to peek through the letterbox.
The police may have also tried to raid the house just after 10pm.
Four bangs could be heard from the front of the house, and nearby residents later said the police tried and failed to ram open the back door at about this time.
The siege ended peacefully at around 11.20am on Wednesday morning when the man promised to come out if he could have a final cigarette.
Then he calmly walked out the back door with his hands up and was arrested by the waiting police and led to a waiting van.
One resident said: "The police handled it very well, credit where credit is due, they were very amicable with him and very professional."
When the siege began people were out in the street enjoying the scene, some in their slippers, some smoking cigarettes and others sat on the pavement.
Another resident said: "My first thought when I saw all the police was 'hey I thought Merseybeat had finished filming!"
l Kieran Rowan, aged 38, appeared before Halton Magistrates Court last Thursday.
He is charged with criminal damage, common assault, taking a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, using a motor vehicle without insurance and making threats to kill a police sergeant.
