Police hunting a suspected kidnapper who escaped custody are door-knocking his known associates.

A 23-year-old man arrested over the violent kidnapping of an Auckland woman has escaped custody.

A woman was kidnapped and driven from Auckland to the Coromandel last night, with the offender assaulting her several times during the ordeal before she escaped.

Surf lifesavers are scouring the water for remains after a woman in her 60s was killed by a shark near Tathra Wharf in New South Wales.

The New Zealand Transport Agency has offered its condolences to the family of an elderly New Plymouth woman who was killed when roadside rocks fell onto the car she was in.

Police are seeking information on the driver involved in a hit and run in Auckland this morning.

Two people are in hospital following a single-vehicle crash in King Country this morning.

A potential disaster was narrowly avoided at a Hamilton petrol station last night after an agitated man allegedly set fire to a car and assaulted a man.

A distinguished mathematician who died when his car crashed off a bridge in south Westland probably fell asleep at the wheel, a coroner has found.

A driving instructor was critically injured when a car being driven by teenage girl collided with a truck on the outskirts of Te Awamutu this morning.

A pair of Muslim extremists who hacked a soldier to death on a London street had to be dragged from the dock after they screamed at a judge during sentencing.