Nerang siege: Two men stand off with cops as Gold Coast locals ordered to stay indoors

Residents in a Gold Coast suburb have spent the night in lockdown after they were caught up in a dramatic siege that has kept locals locked up inside for more than 12 hours.

Police cornered two wanted men after they barricaded themselves in a duplex belonging to an elderly couple in Nerang around 3.30pm on Wednesday afternoon. 

Nearby St Brigid’s Primary School immediately went into lockdown before police extended the emergency declaration and exclusion zone two hours later.

The exclusion zone encompasses Riverpark Drive, McLaren Road, Kopwhai Place and Inverness Street, which remained blocked off by dozens of police on Thursday morning. 

Police have urged residents to stay indoors and warned the public to keep away.

Some spent the night sleeping in their cars in freezing conditions, unable to return home.

Several streets in Nerang remain closed off by police on Thursday as a tense standoff between police and two men enters its 16th hour

‘I live 100m over that way. They are letting people come out of the street not going into the street,’ one woman told the Today show on Thursday.

One man added: ‘It looks like I’m locked out for I don’t know how much longer, I will make my way back to home unshaven, having not showered and still in yesterday’s clothes.’ 

St Brigid’s Primary School parents have been told the school will be closed on Thursday.

Another local was desperate to return home to her elderly mother.

‘They won’t let me past just to get home,’ Robyn told the  Gold Coast Bulletin.

‘Police should really have something set up for when something like this happens.

‘I live with my elderly mother, I can’t get to her, and I’ve got nowhere else to go. I just have to wait it out.

It’s understood the two men were wanted by police on return to prison warrants.

Reports have surfaced that one of the men had cut off a GPS ankle-tracking bracelet and was on the run before being confronted by police.

It’s believed the men may be linked to two shootings in recent days, including a police station drive-by shooting at Arundel early Monday morning.

Shots were also fired into a car driving through Coolangatta last Saturday.

The elderly couple were released but a woman in her 80s was treated by paramedics for shock.

More to come 

An exclusion zone in Nerang remains in place with a number of streets blocked off