A Bay of Plenty dairy owner stabbed at least 10 times with a screwdriver in a frenzied attack says he would probably have died if his aunt had not tackled his attacker.

Ramandeep Singh, of Katikati, suffered puncture wounds to his head, neck, back, chest, arm and a lung in the attack by a man at his Katikati shop on Friday.

Although bruised and bandaged, Mr Singh was back at the Park Road Dairy - which he runs with his uncle - yesterday.

Mr Singh said his aunt and mother were helping serve customers when a man walked in at 2.40pm on Friday.

He hung around in the store for more than an hour until he eventually bought a 20c sweet and was told to go.

But he returned to the dairy and headed straight for Mr Singh behind the counter. Then the stabbing began.

Mr Singh was stabbed many times until his aunt and mother ran out from the back room to stop the attack.

"I don't think he would have stopped. He just kept going," Mr Singh said.

Sheer adrenalin spurred Kamalgit Kaur into pulling the man off her nephew twice before scratching her fingernails down his neck and back, tearing his shirt off and throwing him to the middle of the store.

"I saw my nephew was not safe. It made me very angry," said Mrs Kaur, who is middle-aged and of modest height.

"I'm not really strong but this man is very strong. I tried pulling him. I scratch his back," she said.

Security camera images show the man assaulting Mrs Kaur, then fleeing.

A St John Ambulance worker, who is a dairy regular, rushed Mr Singh to Tauranga Hospital.

Doctors told him he was lucky the puncture to his lung had not gone further.

Police arrested a man on Friday night and recovered a weapon.

Lee Regustly Aholima, 45, appeared in the Tauranga District Court yesterday on one charge each of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and aggravated assault. He is yet to plead to the charges.

- APN