'The knife went with the dog' - Witness says stabbing-spree weapon was embedded in animal

Two women and a dog were stabbed in the attack. Photo / File

A Latvian national admitted to hospital after two women and a dog were stabbed in Flaxmere on Saturday night now faces charges relating to the incident.

Police said last night the man, 23, faces charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and also ill-treating an animal. Initially reported to be in critical condition when taken to hospital after the incident at a Flaxmere Ave property, the women were discharged yesterday, but the man remained in hospital and is expected to appear in court this week, said Detective Sergeant Craig Vining, of Hawke's Bay CIB.

The condition of the dog was not available, but a man who rushed from next-door to help subdue the injured and now-accused man where he had been tackled on the footpath outside the house where the incident happened about 8.30pm said he saw the knife embedded in the side of the dog. "The knife went with the dog," he said.

The incident came during a sudden spate of serious violence with weapons in Hastings.

Late on Saturday afternoon, a man was allegedly struck with a hammer in an incident in Gray's Rd, and soon after midnight a person was understood to have been stabbed in a leg in a street incident in the Stortford Lodge area.

Two men were arrested in relation to the incident with the hammer, but no further details were available from police last night.

Outside the scene of the Flaxmere stabbing, residents yesterday told Hawke's Bay Today they were about to go out for the night when they heard the screams of young people in the house next-door.

The bleeding man was tackled on the footpath as he was apparently trying to flee the scene on the eastern side of Flaxmere Ave, between Chatham Rd and Margate Ave.

One man said his cousin tackled the man, and when he realised why, he helped hold the man until police arrived.

About the same time, a bleeding woman made her way next-door for help, and a dog started to run off with a knife embedded in its side.

A neighbour called emergency services as a bleeding woman appeared in her driveway calling for help. The neighbour said: "I think she thought she was going to die. She was in shock."

Neighbours believed that apart from the injured women and the man, the only others in the house at the time of the incident were two girls, a baby aged about 1, and possibly the dog. They said other men had been at the house until a short time before the incident. "I think they went to get McDonald's for the kids," one said. "They were coming back just when the police were arriving."

Police said the injured man was known to the women, and no one else was being sought in relation to the stabbings.

With their own driveway turned into a crime scene, because of the blood from the injured women, the neighbours had to stay the night elsewhere.

While the neighbours were allowed back in to collect some belongings yesterday, the southbound stretch of Flaxmere Ave, from Margate Ave to Chatham Rd, was closed to traffic until about 2.45pm as a scene examination was carried out.