Police officer and dog pulled from under car in Invercargill

A police officer and police dog had to be pulled from under a car in Invercargill last night.

Witness Storme Tautari said officers had to lift the car up to free the man's leg after a dramatic chase in which a driver allegedly tried to ram police cars.

Neither officer nor dog suffered any serious injuries after the incident, which happened when the car was spiked.

Police received reports of erratic driving by a vehicle on the Bluff Highway and tried to stop the car just before midnight.

The driver fled in the car, which was then spiked by police, but the vehicle continued on for a short time, a police spokeswoman said.

Tautari said she and others were driving when they noticed police cars approaching from behind.

"The guy that they were chasing was really old," she said. "He just came flying past us with two flat wheels, which I assume were from the spikes that the cops had laid out on the road.

"He kept driving with the two flat wheels . . . he came to a stop but he wasn't really stopped . . . he was still trying to ram the cops out of the way."

Tautari said the man was trying to ram through police cars, but there was one officer on foot who was hit.

After that, she believe the man locked himself in the vehicle, as officers had to smash the window to get him out.

Others then surrounded the car, calling for help to lift it to free the officer's leg.

"I thought that it was really intense," Tautari said. "I think it would have been around five to 10 minutes, because it was happening all so fast."

All she could here was "cops yelling, cop sirens, and just everyone, like, helping, when they were lifting up the car everyone was just yelling to help and stuff".

She saw about 10 police cars at the scene, each full of officers.

The police spokeswoman confirmed an officer and a police dog were hit by the car.

"The dog was checked by a vet and did not suffer any serious injuries. The police officer suffered bruising to a leg."

A 68-year-old man is appearing in Invercargill District Court today on a range of driving charges.

In footage Tautari posted to Facebook, officers can be seen arresting a man while other officers can be seen leading a limping policeman away from the scene.