KEY POINTS:
Police are investigating two separate vicious assaults on Auckland's North Shore early today which left four people seriously injured.
A North Shore police spokesman said the attacks happened in the suburbs of Milford Beach and Takapuna.
In the first incident, about 1.30am today, a 20-year-old woman and 25-year-old man were sitting in a parked Mercedes car at Milford Beach.
A man approached them, asking for a beer and after a brief conversation was joined by two other men.
The couple were then violently assaulted with a baseball bat and robbed of personal belongings.
The woman ran into a nearby reserve and swam across the Milford marina where she sought help from local residents.
The man staggered more than 300 metres towards Omana Road before a police patrol vehicle en route to the scene discovered him.
Police said both victims were admitted in North Shore Hospital with serious lacerations to the head and other injuries. Their condition was described as stable.
Police said the second assault happened about 4am.
A 20-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man were walking along Lake Road, Takapuna when a dark coloured car with several male occupants pulled up alongside them.
One of the occupants got out and attacked the couple knocking them unconscious.
The woman had her handbag taken. The couple were discovered by a passing motorist before being taken to North Shore Hospital by ambulance with serious injuries.
Police said they suspected the attacks were carried out by a group of males travelling through the North Shore area either en route from or to Northland.
Anyone with any information should contact police.
- NZPA
