Accused limps into court as police refuse to say if the weapon used in the shootings had been recovered, while another office is locked down after a threat.

Paula Bennett says "there's lots of tears" for shooting victims as she reveals accused gunman had rejected further help from Work and Income.

Farmer Dan White knew a gunman was on the loose when he went to move a mob of sheep. He saw a man in a paddock 20m away.

The suspect at the centre of yesterday's triple shooting was a sick, homeless man who had returned to Ashburton to die.

Ashburton residents can sleep easy tonight after a suspected gunman who allegedly shot dead two Work and Income workers and injured another was take into police custody.

Follow here for live updates from the hunt for the gunman after two people were shot dead in the Work and Income office in Ashburton.

Armed police have apprehended the man sought over the fatal shooting of two people at a Work and Income office this morning.

A witness to today's shooting tragedy in Ashburton said he saw a staff member from Work and Income run after the shooter yelling "You bastard, you've blown her to bits".

A post-mortem will be carried out this morning on a man's body found in Ashburton.

'She's a brave wee girl', say police of an eight-year-old who was grabbed from her driveway and put in a car before she managed to escape.

Promising up and coming jockey Ashley Frye has been rushed to hospital following a fall during a race at the Ashburton Racecourse this afternoon.

A hearing scheduled for the teenager who killed young Ashburton mother Sina Solomona has been postponed.

Firefighters were this morning still battling a large blaze which ripped through hundreds of hay bales and threatened a house near Ashburton overnight.

An Ashburton fugitive caught after 10 days on the run appeared in court today on family violence charges.

Canterbury firefighters didn't get much sleep last night with six rural fire around Ashburton, four of which may be linked and are being treated as suspicious.

A train is believed to have ignited a large blaze that destroyed a vast crop and threatened to spread into nearby areas of Chertsey in Ashburton yesterday, firefighters say.

Verbal trespass notices have been served on ringleaders of a brawl between more than 30 people outside McDonald's in Ashburton on Sunday morning.

Ministry for Primary Industries officials have approved an incursion programme in mid-Canterbury following a spillage of one of Europe's most invasive arable weeds - black grass - found in a consignment of imported fescue seed.

The Methven resident was on his way home from Ashburton when he ploughed into three cows at about 7pm on Saturday.

An Ashburton university student suffered bruising after a heroic tussle with an intruder in her Wellington flat.

The truck driver who drove into the path of an oncoming train in May has claimed sun strike was the cause of the smash.

More than a hundred food handlers in Ashburton have been vaccinated against hepatitis A, as the virus continues to spread through the township.

Three weeks ago Col Sheehan was enjoying a few holes at the Tinwald Golf Course before his pet very likely saved his life.

A truck was cut in half and debris scattered for 500 metres when it was hit by a train at a rail crossing in Ashburton this morning.

Samuel John Townhill, 39, pleaded guilty in Ashburton District Court yesterday to two charges of destroying the nests of black-billed gulls laid under the Wildlife Act.