An armed police officer guards a bridge on Pokapu Rd, just north of Davis Rd where the offender was last seen. Photo / Peter de Graaf
An armed police officer guards a bridge on Pokapu Rd, just north of Davis Rd where the offender was last seen. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Northland police were last night still looking for a Mid North man who sparked a major manhunt in scrub and farmland yesterday.
The drama began when police spotted a car linked to a wanted man, sparking a pursuit on rural roads between Kaikohe and Moerewa about 11.30am.
Armed police sealedoff the area and deployed road spikes at key locations around Pokapu Rd, off Ōtiria Rd, while an officer followed a hunch and fresh tyre tracks up a rough farm track off Davis Rd.
He found the ute police were searching for and two men who then ran off into the bush.
An officer tried to follow with a tracking dog while members of the Whangārei-based Armed Offenders Squad flew up on the Eagle helicopter.
Acting Senior Sergeant Pat Waters, of Northland police, said inquiries to find them were continuing.
The incident began when an officer spotted a vehicle linked to a man with warrants for his arrest.
The police Eagle helicopter and the AOS had been deployed as a precaution, he said.
An armed police officer guards a bridge on Pokapu Rd, just north of Davis Rd where the offender was last seen. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Traffic initially unable to get through Pokapu Rd included a school van bringing Motatau School children home to Moerewa. A kohanga reo at Matawaia was also affected.
It is the second time in a week Motatau School has been affected by a fleeing offender.
About 4.25pm last Thursday a man with multiple arrest warrants was trying to get away from police when he crashed head-on into a Motatau School bus then fled on foot into scrub. He was caught a short distance from the crash scene by a police dog.
There were no children on the bus at the time but the driver was badly shaken.
