An ambulance was stopped from going out on an emergency call after vandals attacked its Hastings station with a crowbar early on Saturday morning, just hours after an unrelated ram-raid and arson at Hawke's Bay Hospital.
St John Ambulance Hawke's Bay area administrator Karen Crysell-Jerphanion said staff on duty early on
Saturday morning were instructed that for safety reasons they should not leave their building during a drama in which two youths smashed the front garage-door windows with a crow-bar and yelled threats to people in the area.
Unable to leave through the front door, and unsure where the attackers were or what weapons they had, an ambulance from Napier was called to the job in Hastings, causing some delay, she said.
The windscreen of one ambulance and a computer in an office were damaged by flying glass, as nine windows were smashed by the vandals about 1.30am, after they were disturbed while smashing windows on trucks next-door.
Police arrested two brothers, aged 18 and 19, and they will appear in the Hastings District Court on Thursday charged with wilful damage, possession of an offensive weapon, burglary and being unlawfully in an enclosed yard.
The attack came less than six hours after a woman drove a car up a loading ramp at the rear of the Hawke's Bay Hospital psychiatric unit, crashed it through a verandah support, tried to smash down a door with a softball bat, and set-alight petrol which she had poured around the loading-bay landing.
It happened about 8.15pm, and no one was hurt, said Detective Jay Mason, of Hastings CIB.
Hospital security staff rushed-in, extinguished the fire and apprehended the woman who was held until police arrived. The attack followed the woman's discharge from the unit earlier in the day. Aged 25, she appeared before a Justice of the Peace in the Hastings court the next morning charged with arson, wilful damage, threatening to kill, and two charges of assault, although police said there were no serious injuries.
At least one of the charges related to incidents surrounding her discharge, and she was remanded in police custody and without plea to appear before a judge in the court tomorrow. A review of security was being carried out.
