Portland police on Sunday evening shut down a section of Park Avenue, near its intersection with St. John Street, to traffic after they encountered a man armed with a knife who was described as “suicidal.”

Traffic was directed around the neighborhood to protect the public. The situation, which began to unfold around 6 p.m., had been resolved by 7 p.m., according to Lt. Robert Martin, spokesman for the Portland Police Department.

Portland police were called to the Hadlock Field neighborhood to investigate a report of a man who was “actively cutting himself” with a knife, Martin said.

“We deployed a less than lethal sponge round to disarm him,” Martin said in an email. A sponge round is a sponge-tipped projectile that is fired from a launcher.

The man, who is not being identified, was transported to Maine Medical Center for treatment of self-inflicted stab wounds that were not life-threatening.