By PAUL YANDALL
An elderly shop owner was bashed repeatedly in the head with a softball bat and his son suffered a broken arm after a puzzling attack in South Auckland.
The pair were working in the Tavern Dairy on East Tamaki Rd in Otara when two men, one carrying a
softball bat and both wearing scarves around their faces, entered the shop about 10 am on Saturday.
Silently the men began attacking the Indian shop owner, who is over 70 years old.
A witness said the attackers landed about five blows to the man's head before his son came to his aid. The son was hit repeatedly on the left arm until it broke.
The assault lasted about a minute before the men were fought off by another family member with an iron bar. The attackers left a backpack in the shop.
The witness said the pair ran out of the store without saying a word and fled down a nearby alleyway.
The injured men were taken to Middlemore Hospital and were released later that day. The elderly shop owner received seven stitches to the back of his head.
A family spokesman, who did not wish his family to be identified for fear of further attacks, said the injured pair were shaken by the assault but otherwise all right.
"If this was a robbery then we could understand, but they just came in and started hitting and then left. It is very frightening for us."
He said the family did not have any enemies and there had not been any threats or similar incidents since buying the shop two years ago. Police said an off-duty detective saw the attackers leaving the shop.
They are described as Maori or Pacific Islanders, both 15 to 24 years old, with short, black hair, and about 1.8m tall.
One was wearing a green camouflage jacket and dark pants. The other was wearing a red-and-black-chequered Swanndri and dark blue jeans.
