THE centre of a North Yorkshire town was brought to a standstill when a man thought to be armed with a knife locked himself into a flat, leading to a stand-off with police lasting nearly three hours.

The man was eventually dragged handcuffed from a block of flats in Malton's Railway Street, by four police officers wearing full body armour.

The man was foaming at the mouth and screaming to the hundred-strong crowd that had gathered.

"This is rough justice," he shouted as he was escorted into an emergency ambulance.

"They are trying to send me to prison for nothing because they are evil, evil, evil."

Police were called at 11.46am yesterday by ambulance staff, who had been trying to take the man in to their care.

A psychiatric social worker who accompanied the ambulance staff remained in the flat with the man throughout the drama.

Chief Inspector Ken Gill, of North Yorkshire Police, said: "There was a suggestion that he had threatened somebody with a knife early on."

But he said the man was not armed with a knife when police officers entered the flat.

He said the social worker stayed with him of her own accord.

"She was aware of the danger she was putting herself into, but was trying to calm the man down and talk him out.

"When the decision was made to bring it to an end she was not in danger."

More than 15 police officers attended the scene, including the armed response unit.

At 2.25pm, four officers in full riot gear entered the building and came out with the man.

The man was detained under the Mental Health Act.

A friend of the man, Russell Farndale, 30, of Castlegate, said: "He had been to the doctors. He had been poorly before with mental problems.

"He's got it into his head the police are after him.

"There was nothing wrong with him at all this morning, then the social worker came to section him."

He said: "But they (the police) have been harassing him mentally, because he has a reputation, but he has quietened down. They are just making it worse now."

Updated: 11:00 Friday, August 08, 2003