Police lay siege to farms

Police cordon off the Northland farming area. Photo / Northern Advocate

An extensive police cordon was thrown around a Northland farming area yesterday as armed police searched for a man believed to have shot and seriously injured a teenage boy.

Specialist armed police were called to Mangakahia Rd, west of Whangarei, after emergency services took a frantic phone call, which abruptly went dead.

Before being cut off, the woman caller - who had fled her home at 9.15am - said her partner had assaulted a teenage boy at the farmhouse.

There were reports of a gunshot, and it was initially believed the 16-year-old had been seriously injured.

As the drama unfolded, police threw a large cordon around a rural and bush area, but refused to give details to residents.

Police set up roadblocks stopping all vehicles from driving through the area while an ambulance spent most of the day on standby waiting to recover the boy.

Police called through a megaphone for the man to surrender, and stun grenades were heard exploding on the property. A police helicopter searched the rough terrain.

About 7.30pm the search was called off after police searched the house and the teenage boy was found hitchhiking nearby. He was not seriously injured.

Meanwhile, neighbours were kept in the dark to the potentially dangerous situation.

"We are completely stunned, we've been here all day and no one has been around to tell us anything," said resident John Pendersen: "That's what pisses us off. If others [residents] hadn't called and told us we wouldn't know anything."

Pendersen said a man who was living at the property that was the focus of police attention had previously spoken of having had guns taken away by police. The neighbour said he had also been told by the man that he had converted an air rifle to shoot normal bullets.

Police were still looking for the man last night.