Man strips down at law courts

A black, chubby man yesterday hurried up the steps of the court house, stood next to the x-ray machine, took off his trousers and top and then ran out wearing only a torn pair of shorts that left little to the imagination.

He was so quick that he was gone before the policeman manning the metal detector at the main door even knew what hit him.

He ran up the steps at around 12.30 p.m. dressed in a black, Hard Rock Café t-shirt, a green hat and light green trousers. As soon as he got through the door, as he approached the metal detector, he undressed.

The guards alerted a police officer but he was gone by the time the policeman reached the door.

The man ran off with his clothes in his hands but then abandoned them and kept running up Republic Street, desperately trying to hold together his shorts, which were torn from back to front along the centre seam, laying bare his buttocks.

The policeman tried to look for him by which time he had disappeared up the road, lost in a mass of cruise liner tourists.

People outside were stunned, looking at each other speechless and amused as the unusual incident unfolded. It was all over in five minutes.