Breakfast time in a Mt Eden front room

Armed police took control of the Scott family home for about 30 minutes. Picture / Keith Scott

A Mt Eden family had breakfast-time visitors yesterday - two heavily armed police officers who dropped in and took up positions in the front room of their house.

Armed offenders squad personnel knocked on the door of Keith Scott's home in Valley Rd, entered and trained their firearms on the house across the road, where a member of the public had seen a man armed with a rifle.

What followed was a siege that lasted more than two hours and disrupted rush-hour traffic in the Dominion Rd area.

It was an unusual occurrence for the Scott family, but one they were happy to go along with, Mr Scott said.

"We were very happy to let them in. Anyone with a gun is welcome in our house."

Squad members were in the Scotts' home for about 30 minutes and there was some tension, Mr Scott said.

"They have got the works. They weren't fooling around. It was the real thing."

He was threatened with arrest at one point, after taking photographs of a rifle-wielding officer, but the situation lightened when his daughter Nicky, 18, offered a glass of orange juice. One officer accepted the offer; the other declined.

The incident began when one of the owners of the house across the road disturbed an intruder as she arrived home from a walk, about 8am.

The woman's husband, Glen Evans, said the intruder went out the back door as his wife entered the front door.

His son then pursued the man with a flintlock rifle described by Mrs Evans - who did not want her first name published - as "an old, cruddy old, piece of wood".

But he was spotted by a member of the public, and the police were called.

Mr Evans claimed that after the two-hour siege, police "proceeded to demolish our house".

Doors and windows were smashed in the siege, which ended in his son being arrested and charged with obstruction. Further firearms-related charges could be laid.

Mrs Evans said she had pleaded with police and "explained what this so-called gun was ... I even gave it to them".

Repeated attempts to contact senior police for comment on the Evans' allegations were unsuccessful.

However, Inspector Jim Wilson of Auckland police confirmed that staff had received a call of a gun-wielding man and another report of burglars.

Eighteen uniformed and plain-clothed staff cordoned off the area until the armed squad arrived.

The call-out happened as parents were dropping their children at Mt Eden Normal Primary School just metres from the besieged house.

Their presence complicated matters for police, Mr Wilson said.

"It was a peak time. There were cars and people everywhere."

A series of cordons were set up around the house and negotiations began.

Mr Wilson said a female occupant of the gunman's house surrendered the weapon - a sawn-off rifle - after a short time, but it took a little longer for the man to give himself up.

The stand-off ended at about 10am with the arrest of the 18-year-old.

Police found another two firearms in the house, but Mr Evans said one was "an old flare gun from World War II".

The second weapon was an air rifle, he said.

Mr Wilson said the students at Mt Eden Normal were never in any danger.

However, they were kept inside the school throughout the incident.