A busker on his way to perform in Melbourne's CBD has inadvertently shut down a city train station during peak hour when passengers mistook his instrument bag for a gun bag.
Heavily-armed police swooped on Flagstaff station and evacuated it about 8.30am, with distressed passengers forced to rush out of the underground platforms.
The man's bag was later described as a sports duffel bag that looks "nothing like" a gun bag.
"He was a local busker who was there to play an instrument in town," Inspector Jacob Bugeja told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
"There was a bag that the person was carrying and he had his tools to busk with him."
The man was doing breathing exercises on the train when he aroused suspicion, but police spoke to him about 20 minutes later in the city to confirm he did not have a weapon.
Construction worker Shannon Marrell said he was rushed out of the station as heavily-armed police stormed onto the platform.
"I heard on the train that they had to duck, like they wanted everyone down," he told reporters.
Mr Marrell said a number of people appeared distressed when they had to rush out of the underground station.
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said a rifle case was sighted originally as part of the report to police.
"We're concerned there might've been someone with a firearm on a train this morning heading in towards the city loop," Mr Ashton told 3AW radio.
Victorian Police officerers guard an entrance to Flagstaff train station. Source: AAP
"We've stopped the train at Flagstaff and the critical incident response members conducted a search of the train and were after that ... content there was no firearm on the train, so they've given the all clear for those trains to resume."
Passenger Paddy Naughtin said he was on the 8.19am train to Mernda when it was stopped.
"A dozen cops (half heavily-armed) came running past," he told AAP.
Mr Ashton said he would follow up reports a train driver had told passengers there was a gunman on the loose in the rail system.
"Oh dear ... we'll pick that up, if that's the case, and follow it up with Metro," he told 3AW.
"We have to be really careful about the sort of communications that are put out and when they're put out. You don't want people to be reacting in a way that might put their safety at risk.
"Fortunately people are able to get back on their way. We're sorry for the interruption, but we had to obviously take action quickly and the critical incident response team did respond quickly."
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