The image of three indigenous children tied with cable has sparked a storm of reactions in Australia. Active man, who allegedly wanted to immobilize them until the police arrived.

Police said the man committed the acts after finding the six-year-old girl and two boys, aged seven and eight, swimming in a swimming pool of an uninhabited building.

The man is now charged with assault.

The video released online appears to show two of the children tied up and crying.

Top government officials said they were “shocked” by the video.

Authorities said the 45-year-old man called them on Monday to report the incident in Broome, about 2,000km north of Perth, saying he had found the children in an “abandoned swimming pool”.

Officers arrived to find two children “physically immobilized” with cables and later found the older boy who had run away, WA Police said.

Footage shared widely online shows two children – who appear to be indigenous – in a street as bystanders urge a man, who is white, to let them go.

Rescuers treated the two children at the scene and they were reunited with their families a short time later, according to authorities.

Police said the “force used to restrain” the three children was “out of proportion” given their age and vulnerability.

The state’s children’s commissioner, Jacqueline McGowan-Jones, said she was disturbed by the video.

“They appear to be very young children. They seem very frightened by the situation. The man is quite large and appears to be very nervous,” Jacqueline McGowan-Jones told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday.

“They don’t have the neurodevelopment to understand cause and effect, consequences and actions. And this is legally known,” he added.

The man was granted bail and is due to appear in court on March 25.

According to recent government data, Indigenous Australians aged 10-17 are 29 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be in detention. Ten is the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Western Australia.