Papakura residents told to stay inside during drug lab bust

Police are on Arawa St for a "breach of the peace" but it is not yet clear what has happened. Photo / Michael Craig

Residents were told to stay inside their Papakura homes this morning as police arrested a man believed to have been making drugs.

At 8.55am this morning police stopped a vehicle on Onslow Rd after a man they were seeking was identified as the driver, a police spokeswoman said.

Residents were asked to stay inside because the man was known to carry guns, she said.

He was arrested and police found utensils usually used in a clandestine drug laboratory in the vehicle.

The man was taken into custody.

A resident saw armed police descend on the street this morning.

"I was looking out my window and next thing there's police coming down the road with guns running on to the property screaming, 'on the ground, on the ground'. They had about three young guys on the ground," she said.

She said Onslow Rd was cordoned off all morning as armed police and police in white boiler suits investigated.

She said officers at the cordon told her it was a P lab bust.

A man told NZME his partner was in a house on the nearby Onslow Rd and was told to vacate by armed police.