Photo: Real gun ends the menace of the fake

Police, including an officer with a pistol (top left) detain the fake gunman. Photo / Herald on Sunday

A man carrying a fake pistol found himself at the wrong end of the real thing in Parnell yesterday.

He was surrounded and made to lie on the ground by police who had been told he had a real firearm.

Several people called police about 11.30am yesterday reporting a man with a pistol.

Auckland City police spokeswoman Noreen Hegarty said the man appeared to be trying to conceal the weapon as he travelled on a bus through the city.

He had not threatened anybody, but "the trouble is they look real from a distance and no one wants to get close to find out".

Ms Hegarty said the man would probably be given a warning about the "silliness of carrying an imitation weapon in public".

- NZPA