By GREGG WYCHERLEY and PATRICK GOWER
A stolen car which police had tailed across Auckland crashed into three other vehicles late last night, injuring six people.
A witness said that at one point the stolen car was travelling at up to 180 km/h before the spectacular four-car crash on the corner of Hillsborough Rd and Griffen Park Rd.
The stolen Holden Commodore side-swiped two vehicles and then collided with a Ford Sierra carrying four people.
Two people from the Sierra were in a serious condition in Auckland Hospital early today.
The other two passengers and the occupants of the stolen vehicle were not seriously injured.
The 100 witnesses who watched the clean-up from the police cordon said the crash had sounded "like a bomb going off."
Angry bystanders had earlier been restrained from attacking the driver of the stolen car as he was taken into police custody.
One witness, who refused to be named, said he was driving along Hillsborough Rd when the stolen Commodore overtook him at approximately 180 km/h.
"He was driving down the middle of the road, completely out of control," the man told the Herald last night.
"I've never seen a car going so fast except on a racecourse."
After the initial collision, just metres from the pumps of the Shell Hillsborough Rd petrol station, the cars slid 50m.
Station supervisor Jeevan Jawlae said: "It's lucky he didn't hit the pumps or there could have been a explosion."
Police had cordoned off the area and were interviewing witnesses as the crash investigation team went to work.
Sergeant John McKinnon, of the police northern communications centre in Grey Lynn, said officers were not pursuing the car when it crashed.
"The nearest patrol car was about a kilometre behind and well out of the line of sight. It never actually developed into a pursuit."
He said the car - first spotted doing speeds of just 20 km/h - had first evaded police in Manurewa earlier in the evening before losing them up a side street.
Police later caught up with the vehicle in Mangere and Sergeant McKinnon said the Eagle Helicopter followed it while other units began to set up a cordon as the car made its way across to Hillsborough.
"We had the roads blocked and everything in place but unfortunately they must have twigged to what was up."
He would not confirm reports that firearms were found in the vehicle.
Firefighters using the jaws of life struggled to free the victims from the mangled wreck, and it was over 40 minutes before two of the trapped passengers were freed. Paint cans from the Ford Sierra burst on impact and paint spattered the cars and spilled across the road.
Both occupants of the stolen vehicle were taken into custody.
Car crashes after eluding police
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