Police in Houston, Texas, have arrested a drunk man who had a number of weapons at a hotel room where he was staying, according to reports.

Officers from the Houston Police Department went to the Hyatt Regency Downtown on December 31, after receiving a call from an off-duty colleague.

The officer called for an urgent backup around 1:30 a.m. after he encountered the man, whom he described as erratically and belligerent, according to ABC Eyewitness News.

Officers found weapons both in the man's hotel room and in his car. They seized an AR-15, a shotgun, a handgun and ammunition, Lt. Gordon Macintosh said.

The man was arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon and trespassing. He is now in jail, awaiting questioning.

The arrest took place just hours before New Year's Eve celebration started at the hotel.

Earlier this year, a man shot dead 58 people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, Las Vegas.

Stephen C Paddock, 64, launched his massacre during the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas on 1 October. Police found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Officers recovered more than 40 weapons belonging to Paddock. At least 23 were in his hotel room and included assault-style rifles that appeared to have been modified to convert them into machine guns, so that he could fire more rounds faster.

The Las Vegas attack, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, reignited a debate on gun control in the US, where the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees citizens "the right to keep and bear arms". Federal laws set minimum standards for gun regulation, but individual states can implement their own laws.