Several North Kamloops homes were evacuated Saturday night during a six-hour standoff with a suicidal man who barricaded himself in his home armed with several guns.

The 30-year-old man's wife called police at around 5:45 p.m. Saturday to report that her husband was upset over marital and financial problems.

She said he was in their bedroom with a gun and had threatened to commit suicide so she gathered six children and left the house at 225 Spruce St.

Responding officers entered the house early on and tried to convince the man, who had no previous encounters with police, to come out of the bedroom unarmed.

During negotiations, the man said he intended to force police to shoot him by approaching them armed with a knife.

Police left the house to avoid that situation.

An RCMP cordon was set up around the house and all nearby homes were evacuated, including the Georgian Court transition housing complex.

Emergency social services took the evacuees to temporary accommodations.

Negotiations continued by phone with little success, so just before 11 p.m. the RCMP emergency response team was dispatched from Kelowna to attend.

Around 20 minutes later, before the Kelowna team arrived, a police negotiator succeeded in talking the suspect into leaving his house unarmed.

The man was arrested without incident by heavily armed police and was taken to Royal Inland Hospital for assessment.

Police cleared the residence and seized a 22-calibre rifle, 12-gauge shotgun and 300-calibre rifle with ammunition.

The suspect was held overnight and no formal charges have yet been laid.