A man dressed in a panda suit has been shot and wounded by a police sniper after he entered a Baltimore television station saying he had a bomb.
The man, who also wore a surgical mask, was shot as he approached police officers outside the television station on Thursday and refused to comply with their order to take his hands out of the pockets of the panda suit.
Police could see wires jutting from the suit and feared that he might have his finger on a detonator, said TJ Smith, a spokesman for Baltimore police.
Smith said the man, believed to be in his 20s, was still alive after being shot, but police were unable to approach him because of concern about the possible bomb.
"The situation is not secure. The situation is not safe," Smith told reporters.
Authorities also prepared a robot to approach the man to find out whether there were explosives under his costume and take his hand out of his pocket, but it was unclear whether that had been successful.
The television station was evacuated.
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