LynnMall locked down: Police take man with knife into custody

A man is arrested and taken into custody by police after he allegedly brandished a knife in an agitated state in LynnMall, New Lynn, Auckland.

A man with a knife has been taken into custody by police at New Lynn’s main shopping centre in Auckland.

The man was reported to be inside the LynnMall shopping centre with a knife in an agitated state. Police were called at 4pm on Thursday.

A man is arrested and taken into custody by police after he allegedly brandished a knife in an agitated state in LynnMall, New Lynn, Auckland. Photo / Supplied

A witness told the Herald he saw five armed police officers run towards the Bed Bath N’ Table store near the mall’s food court.

Jason, who didn’t want his surname published, said a security guard told him to go back inside the shop he had come from.

“I watched a guy in [the store] talking to staff near the entrance, then he went to leave and pick up a blanket sitting near the front. Then I heard shouting and it really freaked me out,” he said.

The man “surrendered straight away”, Jason said, while five more armed officers came to the scene.

He did not see the man carrying any weapons and said “everything was calm inside the shop”. Jason said he was “trapped” in the lockdown for about 25 minutes.

Police said there are no reports of injuries. They remained in the area to reassure retailers.

In September last year, Islamic State supporter Ahamed Aathil Mohamed Samsudeen stabbed and wounded several shoppers during a terror attack at the Countdown supermarket at LynnMall before being shot dead by members of the police Special Tactics Group.