It wasn't meant to be a big party - just a gathering of a few friends of flatmates at the old Collingwood St villa to welcome a new flatmate.

Parents of a young woman who died with two others in a house fire say it's a 'bloody nightmare', as police seek cellphone footage of a party held that night.

Crowds gathered and bagpipe music played as a hearses containing the bodies were driven from the burnt remains of the house where three people died.

A search and rescue team will return to the scene of a deadly blaze today fearing more bodies will be found after three young people were killed.

At least three people have been killed following a large house fire in Hamilton early today.

Today is Child Matters advocacy organisation's fourth annual child abuse prevention "Buddy Day".

An overseas student who was grabbed around the neck and dragged towards a car managed to lash out at her attacker to escape.

Friends of a woman who lost a child and her home in a house fire have set up a fundraising page to help the family.

The mother of a 3-year-old boy killed in a Hamilton house fire yesterday is still fighting for her life.

The biggest pumpkin Grace Lusty has grown weighed in at a whopping 96kg.

A Hamilton man says he's no hero but is grateful for the recognition he has received after he saved a woman being mauled by her dog.

A Hamilton woman who was mauled by her own dog is praising the bravery of a passing stranger who she says saved her life.

A car's early morning plough through a wooden fence and subsequent crash into a Hamilton home had a resident thinking "something must have blown over" outside.

A passer-by is being hailed a hero after he jumped over a fence and repeatedly whacked a dog with a broom stick to stop it from attacking its owner.

Police have been on the hunt overnight for three men, thought to be involved in a violent robbery in Hamilton.

A 13-year-old girl with an intellectual disability went missing in Hamilton overnight.

A woman who was drink-driving with an unrestrained young child standing in the car has been slammed by police for her "appalling and distressing" actions.

A teenager trying to impress a girl threw a party that spiralled out of control after she posted an invitation to it on Facebook.

A "few quiets" with friends ended with several fights, bottles, fence palings being thrown at police and arrests as a Hamilton party spiralled out of control.

Staff at a Hamilton liquor have been assaulted during a robbery last night.

Police have stopped and ticketed several drivers speeding past schools this week - including a high school teacher and a father with his pre-school aged daughter in the back.

A baker who went missing in 1965 died the day he disappeared, a coroner has ruled.

Police commissioner Mike Bush has visited the officer shot in the foot while tackling a gunman in Hamilton earlier this week.

A man has been charged over a confrontation where a police officer was shot in Hamilton earlier this week.

Police are hailing an officer for his extreme bravery after he was shot while wrestling an armed man who attacked a woman in a carjacking bid outside a Hamilton supermarket yesterday.