Person seriously injured after reports of shots fired in Manurewa park

Police are investigating after receiving a report that shots were fired in Leabank Park, Manurewa. Photo / Dubby Henry

Police inquiries are ongoing this evening after a person was hospitalised with serious injuries after reports of a firearms incident at a South Auckland park.

Armed police were seen near the cordon at Leabank Park on Claymore St in Manurewa this afternoon.

Emergency services responded to a report that shots may have been fired around 3.10pm.

Multiple people were present at the park, police said.

A person was found seriously injured, and they were transported by ambulance to Middlemore Hospital.

Inquiries are ongoing near the park to establish the circumstances surrounding this incident, police confirmed to the Herald this evening.

Senior sergeant Anton Maisey said there was one male victim with a moderate injury.

He had what looked like a stab wound on one arm, he told the Herald.

Asked if the incident was gang related, Maisey said one of the people involved was wearing red, and the other blue or black.

Nobody else was believed to be involved, he said.

"There's no one else here except the victim's friends," he said, gesturing to a group of four young men wearing red.

One of those men said he did not see what happened and had only just arrived.

Armed police are near the cordon around Leabank Park in Manurewa. Photo / Dubby Henry

A St John ambulance and rapid response unit responded to the incident at 3.09pm, a spokesperson told the Herald.

One patient was treated for serious injuries and taken to hospital.

A nearby resident told the Herald she arrived home to find police cars and ambulance on her street, and the police helicopter circling above.

Another resident said she saw 10 police cars travelling down Friedlanders Rd.

She has lived in Manurewa for more than 30 years and said there is an increasing gang presence, but "they normally keep that business to themselves".

"Youth gangs are on the rise....[it's] really sad."

It comes three days after Joseph Tauiti, 21, died in Middlemore Hospital from critical injuries, sparking a homicide investigation.

An altercation between two groups of people broke out in the velodrome car park in Manukau on New Year's Day.

Gang tensions and firearms incidents have increased in Auckland.

Figures released exclusively to the Herald by Auckland's three district health boards show the city's hospitals have treated nearly 350 patients for firearms injuries since January 2016.

Half of the victims were from Counties Manukau, with Middlemore Hospital patching up 171 patients. Thirteen children who'd been shot were cared for at Starship hospital.