Freshah Fruit and Veges shop owners, Amandeep Singh and Sandeep Kaur talking about the dramatic police arrest outside Repco in Otahuhu, which is next door to their shop.
Video / Dean Purcell
A man has been injured in an armed police incident at Repco on Great South Rd in Ōtāhuhu this morning.
Police said the man had been bitten by a dog while being arrested.
Shawn Laursen, an employee at NZ Cars across the road, said the incident unfolded outside Repco's frontdoors. He had seen four police four-wheel drives and a big van, with at least four members of the Armed Offenders Squad with rifles.
"I heard a big bang - it must have been a flash bomb going off - and then there was a big puff of smoke."
Armed police arrest a man at a Repco in South Auckland. Photo / Shawn Laursen
Sandeep Kaur was cleaning the shop when she heard a loud noise like a gunshot.
"I was really scared," she said. She ran out to see police officers with guns - but they were not in uniform, and she feared they were armed members of the public.
Kaur called to her brother Amandeep Singh to come inside, worried the drama would move to their area.
Singh told the Herald he saw a man in the driver's seat of a car with 10-15 police banging on the car, some with police dogs.
"The man was crying."
After about 30 seconds there were two loud noises like gunshots and the man lay down on the ground.
"I thought he was dead."
NZ Cars owner Philip Watson said his staff had called him this morning to say there had been a shooting across the road. It initially appeared police had shot the man in the leg.
However, police have since confirmed nobody had been shot.
A police spokesman said police arrested a person who had an active warrant.
"The person has been taken into custody and they are receiving treatment for a dog bite sustained during the arrest."
A St John Ambulance spokeswoman said the ambulance service was first notified of the incident at 9.10am. Officers were treating one patient in a minor condition.
