A retired schoolteacher crashed his four-wheel-drive vehicle through the doors of the new Parliament House in Canberra Wednesday, setting off a full-scale security scare, officials said.
Scores of visitors scattered as the vehicle smashed through the front entrance, crashed through the vestibule and ended up in the middle of the Great Hall.Police and security personnel ordered an immediate evacuation of the area and cordoned off Parliament House amid fears that explosives could be in the car.
Hundreds of visitors were herded to an area across the road from the building as the bomb squad was called in.
The driver, 68 year-old Clifton Moss of Broken Hill, was taken into custody and charged with possessing a sawed off rifle and with damaging state property. Police said he would not say why he did it.