A Herald reader has written in to describe what they saw happen. She was having a coffee at a cafe on Clarence Street when the incident occurred.

"I saw at least 20 people running from York Street, I heard shouting and carrying on, and people were running full pelt," she said.

"I looked up and saw two men heading towards me, the one in front tripped over and looked behind him. He seemed to be running from the second man, and he fell over and people were picking him up.

"Then the second one fell to the ground too. He was being pursued by a man in uniform - a firefighter I think, navy blue overalls - who had a crowbar.

"Then they had the man on the ground and they put a chair from the cafe over him to keep him down and people started to cluster around.

"It was about ten minutes until police came. It was just regular people holding him down, including the fireman."