Man charged over Bourke Street threat; council defends staff warning

Police have charged a 31-year-old man of no fixed address with making threats to kill and making threats to inflict serious injury.

They allege the man phoned a media outlet in Sydney and made threats of an incident on Bourke Street in Melbourne CBD.

Police said there was no broader threat to the community on Thursday night, despite the City of Melbourne sending a text message to its staff advising them to avoid the area.

Police have charged a man for allegedly making a threat of an incident on Bourke Street in Melbourne CBD as the city's council defended its decision to issue a warning text message to staff to avoid the area.

Police allege the 31-year-old man of no fixed address called a media outlet, believed to be the Nine Network in Sydney, and made the threat.

The media outlet immediately referred the threat to Crime Stoppers.

In response to the threat, police increased patrols in the CBD, and at 7.30pm the man was arrested by uniformed officers and Victoria Police's Critical Incident Response Team at a fast food restaurant on Swanston Street.

Police alleged the man was carrying a knife, but he was arrested without further incident.

He was charged today with using a carriage service to menace, making threats to kill, making threats to inflict serious injury and carrying a controlled weapon without a lawful excuse.

Staff at the City of Melbourne were sent a text on Thursday evening by the council advising them to avoid the Bourke Street area after 7pm.

Speaking on Thursday evening, Inspector Dale Huntingdon said Victoria Police would work with the council on why the message was sent out.

He said police had deemed it unnecessary to alert the wider public.

"We work with the council quite closely with the safe city cameras, which we use quite often," he said.

"We'll work with the council about how that message went out because it wasn't a police [issued] message to go out to all. We have the capability to do that.

" At no stage was the public in the CBD, or coming into the CBD, at any time threatened … the CBD was quite safe during this period. "

In a statement, the City of Melbourne said: "Following a credible warning from Victoria Police, we sent the text message as a precaution to protect our staff.

"We make no apologies for that," they said.

Premier Jacinta Allan said she had been advised by police that there was no broader threat to the community, and the decision by the council to send the warning text message was a matter for them.