Armed offender on-the-run: Police still on lookout for fleeing driver

An armed person at the centre of an ongoing manhunt in Hamurana is still on the run.

The person allegedly discharged a firearm in Fordlands yesterday morning before fleeing from police.

Officers were actively searching for the offender for several hours yesterday with inquiries ongoing today.

"Officers attempted to stop a vehicle on Wrigley Rd in Fordlands about 9.40am," police said.

"AOS was called as a precaution along with police dogs and a helicopter. Inquiries are still ongoing to find the offender in the Hamurana area."

Police and AOS spent the day trawling farmland to try and track down the offender.

A photo doing the rounds on popular website Reddit showed members of the Armed Offenders Squad sitting on the back of a flat-back ute, surrounded by police cars on the Hamurana farmland.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that officers had borrowed a ute from a local farmer to safely get around the bumpy terrain and get to high ground where the offender was expected to be.

Earlier some residents were unable to get to their homes with a number of cordons in place, however these were now lifted.

A Rotorua Daily Post reporter said a police car had been stationed at the intersection of Te Waerenga and Hoko Rds with access to Hoko Rd prohibited. A police officer with a gun had also been turning vehicles away at the intersection of Unsworth and Hamurana Rds.

Police preparing to lay spikes on Clayton Rd. Photo / Supplied

Earlier Clayton Rd resident Shannon Kihi said she saw a fleeing car dodge police spikes outside her property.

She said it looked like a police officer was preparing to lay spikes when the car flew up onto the footpath at speed, partially striking a rubbish bin and narrowly missing a power pole.

As she ran down the driveway, her elderly neighbour and grandchild were standing on the footpath in shock as the car had come close to hitting them, she said.

"It just makes you so angry ... they are lucky there weren't more children on the footpath."

A staff member from the Hamurana Store said a car sped past her store and was followed by eight police cars.

She said it was going "very fast" and it was "very scary".

Hamurana resident Jason Thomas said he could now hear traffic again on Hamurana Rd and his neighbour, who was caught on the other side of the cordon since 11am, was now able to go home after nearly five hours.

It was only when a heavily armed police woman walked up Thomas' driveway after hearing sirens scream past his house earlier today that he realised something was going on.

"I saw an officer creeping up the driveway with a bloody gun in her hand," he said.

"I don't know much about weapons but they weren't hand guns that are for sure."

He heard sirens fly up the road which he said happened often enough that he did not take any notice of it.

A police officer initially told him they were looking for two offenders who were likely to be armed.

He said a helicopter had been out for a few hours earlier.

It was around 10am, maybe 10.30am, when Hamurana resident Jason Thomas heard a noise

Another local resident said she was driving home from an appointment when she saw a car going "flat out" down the Hamurana straights with a tail of police cars behind it.

A resident on Te Waerenga Rd said he saw a handful of police cars zoom down Hamurana Rd then about 10 minutes later, one went up past his house on Te Waerenga Rd.

GNT fibre installer Mark Samuel had come all the way from Hastings to install fibre but was turned around by police.

"It's pretty annoying," he said.

Rodger Crossman has been at the Unsworth Rd cordon for two hours since 12pm as his property, a subdivision, was on the other side.

His children were at home, inside his home and had been in touch, saying they were safe.

"They're okay, they've hunkered down."

Crossman said he would just wait it out until he could go home.

He said it was "hard to know" how a situation like this would turn out, but he said the police made the right decision in closing off the road. While he was sitting at the intersection, he said a group of armed offenders had driven up but drove away again.