Man stabbed at inner-city flats

The public rushed to the help of a man lying in a driveway in Grey Lynn, Auckland, yesterday with a stab wound to his chest.

The stabbing happened at a block of flats opposite Foodtown in Coleridge St.

Local businessman Simon Stiles said a member of the public ran to his garden centre asking for help.

Mr Stiles took a blanket and went to the flats, where a man was lying in a pool of blood with a stab wound near his shoulder. The injured man, 31, was in shock and did not speak.

He was taken to hospital by St John Ambulance and was last night in a critical but stable condition.

Shoppers watched from outside the supermarket as police arrested a middle-aged man from a flat close to where the man was found stabbed.

Mr Stiles said police demanded the man come out of the flat. "Police called him to the front door and he gave himself up after a bit of an argument."

A 51-year-old man had been charged with assault and could face further charges.

Police said the stabbing was a family-related domestic incident and asked for any witnesses to contact the Auckland police crime squad.