Brisbane’s busy Regent Theatre in 1962 was the scene of a dramatic shooting with police.

Brian Ogden from the Brisbane Museum told the story on 4Bc Afternoons.

“This is when Queen Street is still a busy traffic street and you’ve still got trams and there are people watching a morning screening of Hannibal.”

John Andrew Stuart was among those in the audience, after escaping from a psychiatric ward the night before.

An off-duty police officer spotted him, he was chased by police and a shoot-out ensued.

He spent time in and out of prison over the coming years.

In 1973, he and an accomplice bombed the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Fortitude Valley, resulting in the deaths of 15 people.

Press PLAY below to hear the full account 

Image: Library Board of Queensland, taken between 1945 and 1975