South Australian police have shot a man after he allegedly pointed a gun at the head of his three-year-old daughter during a dramatic confrontation with police in central Adelaide.
The shooting ended an ordeal for a young mother, her daughter and seven-month-old son that began nearly three hours earlier when her partner allegedly assaulted her at the Cumberland Park home.
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Police shoot man after 90-minute chase
Police shoot a man who allegedly threatened a three-year-old girl with a firearm after abducting her, along with a woman and another child in the Adelaide CBD.
The man, 26, is now in Royal Adelaide Hospital with non-life threatening injuries after being shot once on Monday night.
It's alleged he earlier assaulted two other people who tried to help his 23-year-old partner. He then forced his family into a car. Police were called just before 9pm, but they did not have a description of the vehicle.
![A child is comforted by police after a dramatic stand-off with a man in Adelaide.](/web/20161129025648im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/z/i/t/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gszioj.png/1480367863953.jpg)
They managed to finally identify the car an hour later and a PolAir helicopter tracked its high-speed run through Adelaide, including down Rundle Mall.
Police stopped the car in Hindley Street at 11.30pm when it was slowed down by road spikes and moved to arrest the man.
"When they were doing that it will be alleged that he threatened the three-year-old girl with a firearm and that's when a decision was made for a police officer to fire at the offender," Assistant Commissioner Paul Dickson told reporters.
![The scene of a dramatic confrontation in Adelaide where a father was shot after pointing a gun at his three-year-old child.](/web/20161129025648im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/z/i/t/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gszioj.png/1480367863953.jpg)
Television footage shows police pulling the distressed woman from the car, then grabbing the baby and the girl and rushing them to safety.
Armed officers swarmed the car, with one scrambling over the hood, to secure the gunman.
"They come all together from everywhere, they surrounded every door, every window," witness Ammar Hady told Nine News
"They are trying to open it, he wouldn't open the car, like any doors or anything, they smashed with the smashing hammers and opened the door then they got the kid. I heard one shot."
The children were physically uninjured but Mr Dickson said "obviously there will be a whole lot of distress".
The woman is being treated in another hospital with injuries from the earlier assault.
"It's a terrible incident. You could imagine how horrific it would be for the young mother and the two children," Mr Dickson said.
An investigation is under way.
AAP