A 42-year-old man was hospitalised after allegedly setting fire to a unit and leaping from a first-floor window during an early-morning police siege in South Coogee, in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Emergency services had been called to the apartment block after reports of concern for the welfare of a possibly armed man barricaded inside, and the incident escalated when he allegedly set the property alight as officers approached to speak with him.

Police were called to the block on Malabar Road at about 3.30am on Friday, and footage showed the man smashing through a window as smoke billowed out and a flames spread to a second room. A police officer drew a Taser as the man jumped, and he was quickly surrounded and arrested before paramedics treated him for smoke inhalation and took him to St Vincent's Hospital for assessment. Fire and Rescue NSW extinguished the blaze before it could spread to neighbouring units, and police have launched an investigation.