A gunman was arrested outside Parliament House in Islamabad.

Television footage showed a distraught man walking down the main street, apparently with a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other, while security personnel were around.

Police arrested the gunman, recovered a pistol from him and transferred him to the Secretariat Police Station.

According to police, the gunman was identified as Malik Sohail, 45, a resident of Chakri, Islamabad.

Police said the accused was apparently mentally unstable and his record was being checked.

Later, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid told a press conference in Islamabad about a gunman who had no bullets in his pistol, but police arrested him and launched an investigation.