A MAN at the centre of a 12-hour siege with armed police has appeared in court.

Flavius Cutea was remanded in custody after he was charged with threatening to kill a police officer and possessing a weapon in Windermere.

It followed armed police bearing shields being called to Claife Avenue in the South Lakes town.

Appearing in the dock at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court in Barrow, the defendant, 36, offered no plea to the charges.

He is accused of threatening to kill DC Hill and possessing a taser on November 30.

Mr Cutea wept in the dock before magistrates denied an application for bail made on his behalf by solicitor Karen Templeton during the 25-minute hearing.

One resident who witnessed the scenes on the Droomer estate said: “The police just turned up one after another, after another, after another.

“They had the shields out, they had the guns out.

“This is Windermere. This is the Lake District. It’s classed as a low-risk area but these things happen whether you’re in a low-risk or a high-risk area.”

The man, who asked not to be named, said he had lived in Windermere all his life and had only ever seen armed police in the town during the heightened terror threat that followed high-profile terrorism incidents in the UK in 2017.

He said police blocked all of the roads in and out of the Droomer estate.

A spokesman for Cumbria Constabulary said police received a call at about 9am on Monday.

The spokesman said the call ‘led to concerns for the welfare of a man at an address in Claife Avenue, Windermere’.