Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has praised the “heroic” actions of emergency services after three people, including the gunman, were killed in a shooting in Auckland’s CBD this morning.
A 24-year-old man, who was on home detention for domestic violence and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, stormed a building being renovated in lower Queen St near Britomart and opened fire.
“It is with deep sorrow that I can confirm two people have been killed,” Hipkins said.
Police have confirmed the shooter is also dead, and five people were injured, including a police officer who is critically injured, in this morning’s mass shooting.
Superintendent Sunny Patel said four members of the public have injuries ranging from moderate to critical.
“There may be more victims,” he said.
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Hipkins, speaking this morning from the Beehive, said the offender was armed with a pump action shotgun and moved through the building site, discharging the weapon.
He then moved into an elevator shaft and was located deceased.
“Upon reaching the upper levels of the building the man contained himself in an elevator. Shots were fired and he was confirmed dead”.
He reassured that the public were now safe.
Police actions were “nothing short of heroic”, Hipkins said.
“I want to thank the brave men and women of the New Zealand police.
“Police who ran into fire from the gunman straight into harm’s way in order to save the lives of others.
“I also want to acknowledge ambulance first responders who were there quickly on the scene this morning.”
Hipkins didn’t know whether the police killed the offender.
His understanding is that there was no identified “political or ideological motivation” for the shooter and as such, there was no need to change the national security risk.
“There is no national security risk”, Hipkins said.
He said it was an ongoing police operation and couldn’t provide many other details.
Hipkins said today’s incidents appeared to be the actions of one individual and were not seeking anyone else.
Asked if the gunman was wearing an ankle bracelet, Hipkins couldn’t speak to those details.
Hipkins said it was his understanding that the two people dead are civilians.
The Government has spoken to women’s Fifa World Cup organisers this morning and the tournament will proceed as planned.
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A construction worker has told the Herald of the terrifying moment encountering the gunman on the stairs of the Deloitte tower.
The worker, who did not want to be named, went up towards the roof then hid on another floor of the building with a colleague before reaching the top of the tower.
Around 7.20am, the fire alarm sounded and workers began moving down the building’s stairs when an armed man in a dark jacket came up and shouted for them to get up to the roof or he would shoot them.
”I’m shaken,” said the man who heard multiple gunshots while inside the building.
The police came “very fast” and they were evacuated from the building, he said.
About 180 people worked on the site and he didn’t know anyone who had been injured.
Acting Superintendent Sunny Patel said the gunman entered the construction site at 7.22am today.
”The offender has moved through the building site and continued to discharge his firearm. Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, the male has contained himself within the elevator shaft and our staff have attempted to engage with him.”
Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later.”Patel said the shooting was not being treated as a national security risk.
Another construction worker who was inside the building at the time told the Herald “a man ran up the stairs, floor by floor, wielding a gun”.
“We were on floor 14 when he got in,” the worker said.
A worker who was inside the building when the gunman entered said “he looked like he was looking for someone”.
Another distressed construction worker told the Herald he encountered the gunman on the stairs of a property under development.
Police were called to 1 Queen St this morning after reports of a gunman.
A series of gunshots were heard just after 8am and there are fears multiple people are dead,
St John says six people are injured, three seriously. At least one police officer is among the injured.
Mayor Wayne Brown said he believed the shooter was dead, although police have not yet confirmed that.
The shooting comes on the same day the Fifa Women’s Football World Cup kicks off in Auckland.
Football fans cowered in the just-opened fan zone at the Cloud on Queens Wharf as the incident unfolded.
Former Football Fern Maia Jackman was among those at the Cloud.
“It’s pretty scary actually. So they pushed us to the back of the cloud where we are and we’re just trying to keep sane,” Jackman said.
“There’s lots of security and lots of uncertainty.”
The scene of the apparent shooting is a 10 minute walk from the Park Hyatt Hotel where yesterday Fifa president Gianni Infantino held a press conference ahead of tonight’s World Cup opening ceremony. A sell-out crowd of more than 40,000 is expected at Eden Park to watch New Zealand play Norway.
The event centre opened this morning.
The downtown fan zone was also expected to be packed tonight with the game shown on a big screen along with music, entertainment, food and games.
Construction workers were crying and hugging each other after being rushed out of the building by police, a witness says.
”They were so scared,” said Danielle Evangelista, who was sitting in the cafe foyer of the PwC building, looking through the glass windows above.
Some of the workers were shaking their heads, some were dragging their hands down over their faces in shock.
”Some were crying, heaps of them were on the phone with people, and heaps were just comforting each other, like kind of having their arms around each other.”
Evangelista said the workers were initially escorted out by armed police and made to crouch behind bushes across the road on Quay St.
”You could see the look on their faces.
”They all looked like they had families because they were all older people and they were hugging each other.”
Evangelista had earlier been on her way to work when police and ambulances began rushing past her morning bus on Albert St.
Looking out the window eight to 10 police cars swept past including the black SUVs of special response police at about 7.45am.
”I looked down and they were all carrying these big guns and I got really scared,” she said.
”And then all of a sudden everyone starts getting off the bus”, which stopped in the middle of the road away from a bus stop, she said.
”And then once I got off the bus everyone was in a panic, they were all running around.
”Overhead the police helicopter flew in low.
”It was really close and I got really scared.”
As police began to set up cordons, they were yelling at pedestrians to “go inside, go inside”.
She said people were still hanging around on the intersection corners.
”Heaps of people were still panicking like they were all kind of running around.”
But police continued telling them to go inside, with Evangelista taking refuge in the PwC building cafe foyer by about 7.55am.
A bystander told the Herald “all of a sudden the police turned up, the armed squad just turned up, flying in with their guns and black suits”.
A woman watching the scene said she was evacuated from Commercial Bay and said she was concerned because she left her ovens on.
From the PwC building Evangelista saw police rushing in and out of the building.
That included black-helmeted and heavily armed police with green backpacks entering the building in small teams of five-to-six.
Armed plain clothes police also went in and out of the building.
Quay Street meanwhile was “covered” in armed uniformed officers, who cleared the streets of members of the public and gradually pushed the cordons wider.
The sirens of more than 30 police cars below wailed.
About 8.20-8.30am, police escorted a large number of construction workers to cover behind the bushes just below Evangelista.
She said that by close to 9am a large group of police gathered around a van on the street, appearing to indicate the situation was calming.
Evangelista said waiting office workers crowding around the windows and watching in the PwC building were all also supporting and comforting each other.
The morning had left her shocked, Evangelista said.
“You don’t see that in New Zealand,” she said.
“It was so scary.”
Herald reporter Jaime Lyth, who is near the scene, said she heard several gunshots just after 8am.
“I think five continuous shots,” she says.
Hundreds of school children are watching the scene unfold and filming while members of the public are being ordered to go into the HSBC tower.
Traffic around downtown Auckland has ground to a halt and all ferry services have been cancelled until further notice.
There are 21 police cars blocking Quay St in one block alone, between Lower Hobson and Lower Queen streets.
Sections of Lower Hobson St, Quay St, Queen St, Customs St W and Lower Albert St are closed.
At 9am, Auckland Transport said the Customs St W cordon has been extended along Customs St E to Gore Rd.
All buses running through the area are being detoured. Trains are still running with customers directed to exit Britomart via the Takutai Square exit.
Much of the South Island is set to plunge below 0C tonight and tomorrow.