Police clear public out of Mission Bay and Selwyn Reserve in Auckland. Video / Supplied
Police had a visible presence at the scene of the massive brawl at Mission Bay as early as 1pm yesterday, but they appeared to have left the area an hour later, says a motorist.
Witnesses told the Herald the brawl kicked off around 3pm and at one point a beer bottle was smashed over the head of a teen.
The motorist, who only wanted to give his first name as Ian, said he drove through Mission Bay about 1pm and saw a number of police vans, police cars and plain clothes police cars and "easily 40 police" and thought something was going down.
After having lunch in Kohimarama, Ian drove back through Mission Bay at 1.54pm and saw no police presence, but about 20 to 40 unruly and drunk youths stopping traffic, banging on bonnets, intimidating people and a further 50 people on the side of the road egging them on.
Earlier today, Inspector Shawn Rutene said police were actively monitoring the young people at Mission Bay beach for a number of hours yesterday before fighting broke out.
Police were out in force at the popular Auckland destination but also watched from above in the Eagle helicopter and through CCTV, he said.
Police were on scene throughout the afternoon and still had a presence there today, Rutene said.
The Herald is seeking further comment from the police on whether they left the scene between 1pm and 2pm.
Ian said he phoned the police road incident number *555 and told the woman "you have been there, you need to get back there".
"I don't know when they went back but there was an hour-and-a-half between me calling them and when they started pepper spraying," he said.
Police clear the public out of Mission Bay and Selwyn Reserve in Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Ian said instead of responding quickly to his concerns, he was questioned for about five minutes. Staff were only doing their job, but there was something wrong with the system, he said.
Ian said as a transport manager he regularly called the *555 number and it was always the same, a long list of questions.
"You don't need that crap. It must deter people from ringing," he said.
A tradesman also questioned the response from police.
Francis Mann, a builder, said he made numerous reports to police about dodgy behaviour from the teenagers long before the brawl started.
Not only did he contact emergency services, Mann also contacted several Auckland high schools to alert them of their students' behaviour.
School staff reportedly told him it was not their responsibility, despite many being dressed in uniform, as the students were not at school.
As many as 100 teenagers from a handful of Auckland high schools, many with alcohol in hand, met at the beach for an allegedly preplanned fight.
Others described thinking one person had been nearly beaten to death, meanwhile,
The brawl was reportedly organised on Instagram and was just one of many upcoming brawls involving students from the "dirty south" and "west Auckland".
One student who was there told the Herald it was meant to be a gathering of students from various schools to celebrate the end of the school year.
But some students from certain schools used the gathering to organise a massive fight, circulating messages through Instagram stories.
As students started arriving from noon an "atmosphere of violence" began to grow.
