Police appeal to public after bank queue bashing

ASB's Queen St, Auckland branch. Photo / Alex Burton

Police are appealing to the public for information following an assault that took place in ASB’s Queen St branch in Auckland’s CBD on Wednesday afternoon.

A witness told the Herald that a man who had been sitting, staring at her in a “weird, intense manner”, got up and started to walk toward her - only to divert to a man who was also queuing for a teller.

He spoke briefly to the man, then suddenly punched him in the head. The victim flopped to the tiles as if he had been knocked out, the witness said. He appeared to have been concussed. He did not remember being punched when questioned soon after, the witness said.

The assailant ran out of the bank straight after the assault. A security guard gave chase but stopped at the door and phoned police, the witness said.

An ASB spokeswoman said it took security incidents seriously.

“The personal safety and wellbeing of our customers and our people is a priority for us, and we take any security incident very seriously.”

“Violent incidents at our Queen St branch are extremely rare and we’ve seen a steady decrease in aggressive behaviour at this location in the past few years.”

“Police are investigating an assault that occurred at a bank on Queen Street yesterday afternoon,” Senior Sergeant Dave Plunkett said.

“A report was made to Police at 4.15pm and our staff were on scene a short time later.”

The victim had been assaulted and required treatment from ambulance staff.

“The offender fled the scene shortly after he assaulted the victim, and area enquiries were carried out,” Plunkett said.

“At this stage, the offender has not been located, however, police will make enquiries into CCTV footage.

“Anyone with information to assist our enquiries can contact 105 quoting the event number P059860889.”