Covid 19 Wellington protest: Top cop reveals plan to clear occupation was only made during the day after morning successes

The country's top cop has revealed that police weren't planning on going right through the anti-mandate protest camp on Parliament grounds yesterday.

Police commissioner Andrew Coster said the decision to press on was made during the middle of day after the success of the morning operation.

"It was clear that the crowd had a very high level of resolve to stay there and we needed to take the opportunity - while we had the numbers - to carry on and finish that job," said Coster.

"We were left with no option but to do what we did yesterday to restore the site."

He said they had tried to work with the protest leaders to de-escalate the situation.

Fires and riots broke out yesterday afternoon on day 23 of the protest when hundreds of officers moved in on the occupation to clear the site.

Eighty-seven people were arrested and Coster said more charges are expected to be dealt.

Seven police officers were also injured.

Fortunately, none of the wounds were life-threatening and the officers were in high spirits, said Coster.

"Considering the violence we saw yesterday we're very fortunate there's nothing more serious."

Volatile scenes erupted as police worked to clear the occupation at Parliament yesterday. Photo / Mike Scott

Although the protest and the response to it would be reviewed, Coster said he stands by his decision-making and how they handled the situation.

"Our tactics have been in-line with best practice internationally, I can tell you that," said Coster.

He said he was proud of the team work, restraint and commitment demonstrated by police officers yesterday.

"I'm pleased that we've got to here. I never wanted it to end like that, but we did what we had to do."

Put to him the news that some protesters are returning, he acknowledged there is and will remain a heavy police presence in and around Parliament grounds and was adamant no recurrence of a protest would be allowed.

"We won't be tolerating a renewal of protest at Parliament."

How Parliament's protest was obliterated

Volatile scenes broke out at Parliament when police and protesters clashed and the protest occupation site was wiped out.

Violence intensified mid-afternoon as police built on an early morning breakthrough in nearby streets before dismantling an encampment that had come to seem immovable.

The occupation ended after 23 days with a major clean-up looming after what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the desecration of New Zealand's Parliament.

The protesters and occupiers arrived for different reasons, and reacted in different ways when police seized a strategic intersection and then advanced on the camp yesterday.

Through much of the occupation, many protesters called for an end to Covid-19 vaccine mandates, although other grievances were aired.

By 3.30pm yesterday, a stream of people were leaving the encampment.

A woman standing by a makeshift gate protesters had fashioned on steep steps in front of the Beehive said she no longer knew what she was doing.

Nearby, another woman stood beside a wooden table, turned on its side, with a wreath on top.

The table had been used to store chalk which people used to draw on a long high wall.

But the art some protesters and visitors created, much of it celebrating peace and love, was soon overshadowed by smoke from burning tents and trees.

The woman at the table said she was leaving, as she couldn't afford to get broken bones.

Police operation got underway yesterday to clear protestors from Parliament in Wellington. Photo / Mike Scott

North of the steps, advancing riot police met resistance as some protesters threw chairs and chunks of wood.

Explosions were heard sporadically as flammable material in tents ignited.

One man in the protest camp raised his hands in despair, shaking his head as he walked away from the violence.

"Get out, it's all on fire," another protester yelled.

But another implored people nearby to give her a lighter so she could torch a tent.

As a playground in the gardens burned, a man in the crowd blamed authorities for the chaos and referred to actions in the occupation's first week.

"Because you aggravated everybody in the night-time and you hit them with your sprays."

Further down the gardens, some protesters were angry, tearing structures down and throwing materials at police.

Projectiles included planks of wood, fire extinguishers and metal poles. At 3.30pm, some in the crowd threw rocks and bottles at police.

More riot police were deployed near the Beehive. Across the garden, police sometimes moved back as projectiles rained down, but their next advance always seemed to capture more ground.

On the forecourt wall, people stood, virtually all with their phones out as a plume of smoke billowed in the middle of the campsite.

Some protesters called for milk and poured it over each other's faces after being pepper-sprayed.

By 4.20pm, a small group of young adults near the main Beehive entrance were agitated, fashioning weapons and throwing bottles at police.

A young male tried hurling what seemed like a plastic bottle at police but his aim was off and it drifted sideways, then struck an elderly woman on her head.

Outrage and confusion erupted among protesters and it seemed a single policeman broke the line, running at the crowd, appearing to inspire his colleagues to do the same.

This prompted a group of protesters to flee to the steps.

"Who's got petrol?" one teenager asked at the top of the Beehive steps.

Further away, a protester yelled: "Burn the Law School, it's timber!"

Lawn sprinklers, which Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard infamously switched on in the occupation's first week, were turned on again, this time to help damp down the fires.

Police cleared the gardens, which were left strewn with garbage, flattened tents and debris, but outbursts of violence kept erupting on the fringes.

A police officer was taken in a stretcher towards waiting paramedics in front of the Beehive.

A few minutes later, another policeman with a head injury emerged, bloodied.

On the far side of the CBD, armed police with gas canisters exited a truck on Courtenay Place.

Closer to Parliament and shortly before 6pm, police appeared to fire rubber bullets and rioters retreated.

Protesters linked arms on Molesworth Street during police action against them on day 23 of the Covid-19 Convoy protest at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell.

Eighty-seven people were arrested by the early evening for offences including trespass, wilful damage and possession of restricted weapons.

Up to 50 vehicles were towed and about 30 more left, police said in a statement.

Police blocked the road and footpath between the Cenotaph and Lambton Quay.

Rioters tore up bricks from paving to throw at police and a car reportedly tried driving into police on Bunny St.

"No guys no," a protester pleaded, trying but failing to stop people ripping up the bricks. "This is not what we came here for."

The Wellington Live Facebook page said a dark-coloured station wagon drove at police.

"This is just too much, Wellington," a correspondent on the page said.

Police turned a fire hose on some protesters near Parliament, and rioters threw a rock and smashed glass doors to Victoria University's Pipitea Campus.

By 6.15pm, protesters were spread across Featherston Rd, as rush-hour traffic continued. But the crowd appeared to have been greatly dispersed.

Police then moved into Victoria University's Law School, ripping up tents.

As night fell, police urged people to keep away from CBD areas near the railway station, Pipitea campus, and northern end of Lambton Quay.

A volunteer group called The Big Clean-Up offered to clear out rubbish and other waste to make the area safe.

National Party MP Mark Mitchell, a former policeman, said cops showed restraint and intent yesterday.

"In actual fact, in terms of what they're facing, and what the whole country has seen what they're facing, the outcome is as good as we could have hoped for."

Earlier, police took control of key intersections as a depleted and seemingly deflated group of protesters lost ground.

In a clinical series of moves unlike any seen previously in the occupation, police swooped around the protest perimeter.

By 6.30am, it seemed at least 125 police were on Mulgrave St, before crossing the Aitken St line where concrete barriers were placed.

Emotional, sometimes desperate scenes emerged near the Court of Appeal after some protesters were pepper-sprayed yesterday morning.

By 6.47am, police had taken control of the National Library, opposite the Court of Appeal and diagonally opposite Parliament's gardens.

The police movement cut multiple protest groups off from each other.

One protest spokesman, Leighton Baker, said the Human Rights Commission had been asked to attend the protest.

"This has from day dot been a peaceful protest and we're going to keep it that way," he said on a Facebook Live interview in the morning.

At the barrier near the Cenotaph, a man in an orange high-vis vest yelled into a road cone to amplify his voice, saying police were using excessive force.

"This is not okay. This is disgraceful behaviour by our New Zealand Police Force."

A man on a pushbike gave him the thumbs up, and a woman yelled "bullsh*t".

- Reporting by: John Weekes, Michael Neilson, Nick James