Gold Coast hotel siege over

UPDATE - The siege at a Gold Coast hotel in Australia is over after a 43-year-old man was taken into police custody nearly 17 hours after he barricaded himself inside a hotel room.

The man had locked himself in a 12th floor unit of The Grand Hotel in Labrador and police believed he was armed with explosives.

He claimed to have hostages and threatened to detonate the explosives.

The man's home at Coombabah on the Gold Coast was raided by police this morning.

Detective Inspector John Hartwell said unknown chemicals were found at the property and were detonated as a precaution.

Police believed the man had household chemicals with him inside the highrise which could be mixed to make an explosive device.

Insp Hartwell said the man had made no specific demands and was cooperative.

While he was upset over certain unspecified issues, he was not stressed or anxious, the inspector said.

Police negotiated with the man by telephone.

Several floors of the highrise were evacuated and traffic had been stopped on surrounding streets.

The alarm was raised about last night when a 23-year-old babysitter who was called to the man's room fled after being hit with a piece of wood.

The man attempted to lure a second woman to the room but police stopped her from entering.

- AAP