Police at the Golf Rd/Maunganui Rd roundabout. Photo / Megan Wilson
Police have removed cordons blocking off part of State Highway 2 on Maunganui Rd in Mount Maunganui.
A spokeswoman said one person had been taken into custody and the cordons had been stood down.
The incident was between the Golf Rd and Spur Rd intersections.
EARLIER:
A Bay of Plenty Times reporter at the scene earlier said there were a lot of police in the residential area near the BP service station on Maunganui Rd.
She said a police car was blocking traffic traveling southeast on Maunganui Rd at the Golf Rd roundabout.
The spokeswoman earlier said police were speaking to an allegedly disqualified driver “to encourage them to exit their vehicle”.
Another reporter who drove past earlier, about 2.30pm, said she saw about four police cars outside a house on Maunganui Rd between the BP and the end of the flyover.
Traffic was backed up on that side of the road.
A person in the area told Sunlive about nine police cars were at a property on Maunganui Rd.
“I’ve just come out of the BP petrol station by the Hewletts Rd flyover near Golf Rd, and the traffic has stopped.
“There are no fire engines or ambulances, but there are police wearing helmets with visors. About nine police cars there.
“A school kid tried to walk past and he couldn’t, so walked back and told me police are all at a house there.”
Traffic was building up in the area.
“The traffic that’s coming from Hewlett Rd over the flyover going to Bayfair is still free-flowing, but no one is allowed past the incident on Maunganui Rd, so all the traffic in the left lane travelling from Mount Maunganui to Bayfair on Maunganui Rd has stopped,” the person said.
Another witness, who asked not to be identified, said police were going in and out of what appeared to be two separate properties and at one stage she saw a woman crying.
“People are getting frustrated as whatever is happening has been going on for at least two hours,” the witness said.
She said the traffic was now banked up back to Mount Maunganui.
The council has also been served with judicial review proceedings.