Man allegedly tried to add hydrochloric acid to lube dispensers at Sydney gay club

Impact

Australian authorities arrested a 62-year-old man for attempting to fill a lubricant dispenser with hydrochloric acid at a Sydney gay club, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported this weekend.

Club security caught the man at Aarows in the Sydney suburb of Rydalmere after he set off alarms installed after previous attempts to tamper with equipment in the building, according to ABC. After sensors were activated, they were able to capture the man and hand him over to police.

"There could have been a lot of damage," one anonymous club attendee told the broadcaster. "Hydrochloric acid is not the best sort of thing to be playing with."

On its website, Aarows bills itself as a three-level "adult adventure" and "a secure, relaxed environment where gay and bi people can meet and socialize together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

Hydrochloric acid is extremely dangerous and corrosive. Its fumes are poisonous, and direct exposure can cause serious burns.

Fortunately, no injuries were reported during the course of the incident.

Earlier this year, a man named Milad Bin Ahmad-Shah Al-Ahmadzai was convicted of shooting and injuring a man named Michael Rooke in the club's parking lot, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. No motive was ascertained other than an intercepted phone call in which another man, Wassim Fayad, told Al-Adhmadzai to "get that freak sorted out."