Man arrested after tear gas thrown in

Photo / NZPA

A man has been dragged out of clouds of teargas at a house in Kamo near Whangarei today after he refused police orders to come out.

Armed police went to the address to arrest the 35-year-old man on drugs charges about 5.45am but he refused to leave and teargas was lobbed into the house.

Police said the man was due to appear in Whangarei District Court later today on serious methamphetamine charges.

When 10 police and the armed offenders squad first arrived at the house they spent an hour trying to contact the occupants without success.

The man ignored police for an hour after they used a loud hailer to order him to come out.

A woman and four children then emerged from the house but the man stayed inside.

"Teargas was subsequently used to encourage the male to leave the house," police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said.

The teargas was not enough to encourage the man to leave and police wearing gas masks entered the house and brought him out.

No one was hurt during the incident.

Kamo resident Nigel Vendt heard noises near his deck shortly before daylight today, soon after armed police used a loud hailer to try to persuade a neighbour to leave his home with his hands up.

Thinking it was someone trying to escape police, Mr Vendt said he shone a torch. "The officer who was hiding there said 'get the bloody hell inside', or words like that.

"We looked down and saw the gun and oops, there's a gun. We thought aargh crap, this is fairly serious."

Mr Vendt said when the man continued to ignore police instructions to come out, tear gas canisters were lobbed through several windows.

That was not enough to convince the man to come out and more canisters were lobbed in before the police stormed the house, using stun grenades to confuse the man who was arrested and handcuffed.

Mr Vendt said the man resisted the tear gas for more than an hour before he was arrested.

He said he could not smell the tear gas, but his neighbour's house was full of smoke and it would have been hard to resist the tear gas.

"I couldn't believe it. I thought there was nobody in there for the amount of time the tear gas was going and nobody was coming out. I couldn't understand it. There were 12 to 20 shots of tear gas."

Earlier police had urged Kamo High School students not to go to school until the matter had been resolved. The house was near the main entrance to the school.

Ms Kennett said police were particularly appreciative of the help given by the staff of the Kamo High School in managing pupils who have been affected by the incident.

- NZPA