Specially trained police officers were late last night attempting to negotiate with a man during a siege lasting more than 12 hours at a house in Park Road, Windhill, Shipley.

The incident began when he barricaded himself into his home with wooden planks and said he had petrol inside the property.

It was also feared he may be armed with knives and a machete during the stand-off with police.

A fire engine, ambulance, first responder car and a fleet of police vehicles were present at the scene throughout the day and after darkness fell.

The man, wearing a white baseball cap, could be clearly seen repeatedly shouting at police officers from an upstairs window at the end terrace house.

Planks of wood were barricading the back windows and door of the house.

At one point, the man could be heard swearing from an open front bedroom window, ordering officers to get out of his garden or he would not come out.

A local resident told the Telegraph & Argus: “I heard a negotiator say ‘Put your knives down.” Nearby houses were evacuated and Park Road and Park Road Rear were cordoned off with police tape.

Police Community Support Officers stood at the end of the streets preventing people from approaching the house.

The alarm was raised shortly before 10am and police officers spent the day and into the evening trying to talk to the man and persuade him to leave the house.

Firefighters were prepared for any blaze with hoses connected to water supplies.

An eye-witness, who preferred not to be named, said: “The back windows and door were boarded-up with planks of wood and he’d barricaded himself in.”

Household items, including cushions, could also be seen at a downstairs window at the back of the house. Officials were speaking to the man, who was dressed in a black tracksuit jacket, through an open window at the front of the house. He had a teddy bear and another soft toy pinned to his jacket.

Police said he was in the house alone. Downstairs lights could also be seen quickly being switched on and off and at one point smoke was seen coming from the chimney.

A police spokesman said they could not comment on rumours about why the man had shut himself in but said specialists had been talking to him throughout the day.

Neighbours described the man, named locally as Joe Brooks, as “a nice lad” who had recently married. They said he was in his late twenties and had recently done a lot of work on the house, including putting up a new wooden fence at the front.

Late last night police said armed officers were at the scene but purely as a precaution.