A cafe worker has described seeing a man lying face down in the grass of a central Auckland park hours before emergency services swarmed to help the victim who had critical injuries from a suspected assault.
The man was found by council workers in Victoria Park shortly after 8am and was taken to Auckland City Hospital with severe head injuries.
Police have cordoned off a section of the park and are working to find out the cause of his injuries.
Syl O'Reilly, a worker at a nearby business, said he saw the victim lying down in the park about 200m from Halsey St as he walked to work at 6.45am this morning.
"He was lying down face first on the grass. I thought he was sleeping or had drunk too much. He looked like a homeless guy and had his bag next to him, he just looked like he was sleeping or something."