Cops respond to spider death threats

SYDNEY, Jan 02 (BBC): A man with a "serious fear" of spiders prompted an emergency call by Western Australia police on New Years' Day.

According to police, a passerby raised the alarm after hearing a "screaming" toddler and a man repeatedly shouting "Why don't you die?"

But after arriving at a home in suburban Perth, they found the man had merely been trying to kill a spider.

In a tweet, police said there had been no injuries during the incident - "except to spider."

"It's just one of those jobs where you go expecting to see one thing and see another," police spokesman Samuel Dinnison told the BBC.

"It's great that it's only an incident involving a spider."

Wanneroo Police deleted an initial tweet reporting the incident on social media.