Cornwall Park is a popular running destination. Photo / 123RF
A male jogger is accused of several spitting attacks targeting women in Auckland parks.
In the latest incident, police were called to Cornwall Park last night after claims a jogger spat at other runners, sparking an altercation.
Police confirmed they responded to an incident at Olive Grove, One Tree Hill shortly after 10pm.
Witness Jacinta Tamate told the Herald a jogger at the park got into a fight about 8.15pm after he spat on another male jogger and was then chased by a mob of people.
She said the drama started when she saw the jogger attack and punch another man, who had stopped to remonstrate after being spat on.
"Some people thought his eyes were rolling back, there was something wrong with him," , Tamate said.
"But I was thinking, nah, a person on drugs doesn't run around and is that fit.
"He seemed like a jogger - just a very angry jogger that shouldn't be spitting and whacking people."
She believed the man had been arrested by police.
Police confirmed they were called to an incident on Olive Grove, One Tree Hill last night, but were not immediately aware of any arrests in relation to the case.
People at the scene told a Herald reporter that a man had been spitting on women in Cornwall Park and potentially Mission Bay for the last month or so.
Tamate said she hadn't seen the jogger at Cornwall Park before but that others gathering at the scene of the altercation said he had been regularly spitting on women over the past month.
One woman said the man had spat on her last week when she was jogging close to the summit of One Tree Hill alone close to when it was getting dark, Tamate said.
"She was a very fit woman and faster than him and she said she ran off but was telling him, 'You don't spit on women'," she said.
Others said the man - who was wearing running gear - regularly jogged around Cornwall Park in the evening, according to Tamate.
In response to the serial spitting claims, police said: "In terms of whether we are aware of any other spitting incidents in the area, there's no easy way to find this in our system as we don't break down incident in that way."
Tamate said that last night she arrived at the base of the summit track to One Tree Hill just as the jogger was arguing with another man.
"The other man was telling him not to spit," she said.
"Then the spitter went for him and ended up on top of him on the ground."
The calls for help by the man being attacked eventually drew a crowd, who tried to block the jogger as he headed off to continue his evening jog.
"After he hit the other man to the ground and we were all saying to him to stop, he just casually jogged off," Tamate said.
The man then completed a circuit of Cornwall Park before his route took him back past the same spot where the attack had taken place.
Tamate and the group - who had remained there waiting for police to arrive and to warn other women in the area - again confronted the jogger, but were not able to stop him running off.
She said she had been coming to Cornwall Park for 15 years and never seen anything like it.
"That is just something I've never seen in One Tree Hill," she said.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.