Taranaki dairy open for business after attack

Sunita and Pram Sharma were assaulted. Photo / Glen Jeffrey

A brave dairy owner is refusing to shut up shop despite being assaulted and robbed for the second time in a year.

Pran Sharma, 60, and his wife Sunita, 55, were alone in their Taranaki shop about 8.15pm on Friday when three men burst through the doors.

"It was a sudden attack so I had no time, otherwise if they had given me a little bit of time, just one minute I would have handled everything," Pram Sharma said. "I would have attacked him back.

"I was doing shelving so they attacked me from behind. They hit me on the head and then tried to rob smokes and were asking for money from my wife."

The men fled without taking anything.

Sharma suffered cuts to the back of his head and eyebrow. His knees were also bruised after he was pushed to the ground.

His wife suffered a minor cut to her head.

The couple were taken to Taranaki Base Hospital but were discharged on Friday night. Yesterday they reopened the shop after police finished examining it.

Last September, Sharma hit a would-be robber with an electric kettle and a jar of lollies when he made his way behind the counter. The dairy owner then chased the robber across the road.

Sharma said his regular customers had come in to check on him and his wife yesterday.

Waitara police are reviewing video footage of the attack and are appealing for anyone who has information about the robbery to contact them.