HOUSTON -- Highway 290 was shut down late Monday night after a man locked himself in a van with a machete. The standoff began after a police chase that started in Pasadena just after 9 p.m.

The Pasadena police were trying to talk the man out of the van earlier in the night when they responded to a suicide attempt call. It was during that attempt that the driver took off.

The chase, which involved Pasadena and Houston police, as well as the Harris County Sheriff's Office, ended on Highway 290 near Huffmeister, but the despondent man remained holed up in the van.

He was still barricaded in the vehicle and the road was still closed at 11:30 p.m.