Police question man over Outback tourist attack

SYDNEY, Australia -- State police are questioning a man fitting the description of an Outback gunman they feared killed a British tourist and tried to kidnap his girlfriend 10 days ago.

The man was spotted driving a truck similar to the one believed to have been used in the attack on the couple in the Northern Territory.

A witness told Australian Broadcasting Corporation the police appeared to be taking no chances when they apprehended the man in a southern suburb of Sydney on Tuesday morning.

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"They were pretty scared, they called a lot of back up, there were 15 or 20 police cars at the time," he said.

"The driver was tall, thin and had long black hair.

"He was yelling 'I'm innocent, innocent, innocent'," the witness said.

A police spokesman said the man was arrested on two outstanding warrants and was being questioned on those matters and "any other matters".

Northern Territory police are understood to be liasing with the NSW police over the arrest.

The body of British tourist Peter Falconio, feared shot dead by the gunman, has not been found since he and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were reportedly ambushed on the isolated Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory on July 14.

The gunman flagged down the British tourists, pretending there was something wrong with their Volkswagen van.

When Falconio and the gunman walked to the rear of the van, Lees heard a gunshot. She was then dragged away, bound and gagged.

She managed to escape into the bush where she was hunted by the gunman and his dog. Lees evaded the gunman and finally flagged down a passing truck.

A massive police manhunt with aircraft and Aboriginal trackers over the Northern Territory, an area five times the size of Britain, failed to find the gunman or Falconio.

But on Tuesday morning Sydney police received a call from a member of the public who had seen a truck near Sydney airport which matched the description of the vehicle used by the gunman.

Police pulled over the dusty truck and questioned the driver, then arrested him on warrants in the state of New South Wales.

The Sydney Morning Herald website quotes a duty police officer saying the man had been taken in for questioning "because of some striking similarities to that Northern Territory incident".

A witness of the arrest told Sydney radio listeners the man had a dog in the back on the truck.

Police photographed the utility truck in the street where it was stopped before towing it away for forensic examination.

Reuters contributed to this report.