Multiple arrests made after youth congregate at Orakei station

A "handful" of people have been arrested after a large group of youths gathered for what appeared to be a fight at an Auckland train station.

Commuters passing through Orakei train station yesterday afternoon told the Herald the youths looked as though they were gearing up for a fight.

Police were out in numbers, trying to defuse any issues, as an Eagle helicopter circled overhead.

This morning, police could not confirm exactly how many arrests there had been but said there were a "handful", all for low-level crimes. There was no mention of charges at this stage.

Jesse Leet, who works at a restaurant near the train station, said there were up to 60 youths at the station about 5pm.

"They all certainly looked like they were eager for a bit of a fight," he said. "It definitely seemed like a planned thing.

"They were all standing around and yelling out. They were all waving their bandanas everywhere."

Police cars at Orakei train station yesterday. Photo/Supplied

Leet said there were about 20 police officers on the platform and several more in the carpark, all keeping an eye on the situation.

He saw police make a human barrier to stop the youths getting on to the train platform.

"All the commuters had to walk past [the youths] because they had all congregated on the overbridge to get out of the tracks. They had to get security guards to walk through the daily commuters, which would have been rather scary for them I imagine."

A woman who passed the incident said it was quite intimidating to drive through the area near the train station yesterday afternoon.

An Auckland Transport spokesperson said yesterday that police were leading the response.

"The police are on site at the station at the moment and everything seems to be in order at the moment."

In July 2015 a fight involving about 60 students from two Auckland schools broke out at Orakei train station over a photo posted to Facebook insulting an opposing school's rugby jersey.