A MAN arrested after a three-hour siege in Hampshire is expected to remain in hospital for several days.

The 63-year-old was taken ill following a dramatic incident at a bungalow in Totton.

He is due to be questioned by detectives as soon as he is well enough to leave Southampton General Hospital.

As reported in yesterday’s Daily Echo, police were called to the bungalow in Hamtun Crescent after receiving reports of a disturbance at the property.

When officers arrived they were confronted by a man with a carving knife.

He was seen waving the knife around and is also understood to have threatened to set fire to the bungalow.

An ambulance and a fire crew were called to the scene as a precaution.

The man went back inside the house and refused to let officers in. When specially trained negotiators failed to talk him out, armed police forced their way in.

Yesterday the siege on New Year’s Day was still the main topic of conservation in the normally quiet close.

Alan Trousdale, who lives opposite the house, said: “I saw a couple of police officers wandering around and the whole thing just seemed to escalate.

“It was obviously a serious incident and went on all afternoon. There must have been 20-30 police at the scene.

“Eventually some of the officers went inside the property and a guy came out on a stretcher.”

A hospital spokesman said the man was “undergoing observation”.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that a man was arrested on suspicion of affray following the incident. He was taken to hospital after becoming ill at the scene and might not be discharged for several days, she said.

People living either side of the bungalow refused to discuss the siege. A woman at the property also declined to comment.