Man's attempted shopping mall getaway

A video has emerged of what appears to be a man's attempted getaway at a busy shopping mall in Auckland, during which he loses his shirt before playing a game of cat and mouse with security guards on the escalators.

Amanda Chase, who filmed the incident, was in a playground area at Westfield WestCity with her two children and mother when she saw it unfold about 10.40am today.

She said a struggle began after the man left Farmers.

He managed to get his shirt off as he attempted to get away.

The man can be seen in the video pushing and kicking a security guard and running the wrong way up and down the escalators.

"After continuing to try and escape, he jumps on the escalator and then onto the other side of the escalator but after [two] other guards show up he gives up," Ms Chase said.

A Westfield WestCity spokeswoman said the situation arose within Farmers before mall security got involved.

"The person left Farmers and Farmers' loss prevention officer was, I think, obviously following the party and our people just assisted to have the person concerned taken back to Farmers to have a discussion with them."

She said the loss prevention officer would have been managing the situation according to their protocol.

"Then we would have just asked the person to cooperate, which they did do, and then they were returned back to Farmers.

The spokeswoman was confident security guards followed protocol.

"They would have then gone back to Farmers as is the standard process to be interviewed with Farmers, and that's managed through their own in-house lost prevention security."

A Farmers spokeswoman said tonight that the company is working with Westfield WestCity to investigate the incident.

"Currently we don't have all the facts however we should have a clearer picture of what occurred tomorrow, once we can review the Malls CCTV."

The northern police communications centre could not confirm if police attended the incident.

A media spokesman for the Waitemata police said there was no record of police attending a job at Westfield.