POLICE cordoned off part of the High Street and Broadway in Sheerness today after a man started throwing glass and crockery from a flat above shops.

The drama began at about 10.30am when the man, believed to be an American, started shouting and hurling the items from the flat above the former New Look shop in Broadway, near the Clock Tower.

Passers-by called the police and at least seven police vehicles arrived with 12 officers who cordoned off the High Street and Broadway approaches to the scene.

Sgt Bob Smith said: “We have got a subject on the premises who escaped from a mental institution a week or so ago. As far as he knew, no one had been injured by the flying crockery and glass.

The incident was still going on this aftewrnoon and Sgt Smith said it was too early to say how police hoped to end the stand-off.

He said police needed to take advice from experts, adding: “There is an option to bring in negotiators to get him out. We have got endless ones at the moment and we’re considering what’s best at this time.”

Chris Oliver, 30, who lives with his partner Layla Millichamp, 29, in the flat below the one involved in the incident, said: "We haven’t been able to get in or out for hours as police have cordoned off the street.

“The man throwing out the bottles and glass is an American lad called Matt. He has been in and out of secure hospitals and has been sectioned in the past. Since the incident began, his mother has been trying to talk to him, but he won’t have anything to do with her.

"Police are also trying to coax him out. He has probably stopped taking his medicine. He really needs help. He is probably frightened about what is how happening here.”