Customer injured in ‘unprovoked’ attack
A man armed with a knife ran through a Four Square shop in Auckland, attempting to stab customers, police say.
One customer suffered minor injuries as the man hit out at two people in the store with a knife at the St Heliers Bay Rd store about 7.30pm on Saturday, a police spokesperson said.
A witness, who was outside the store with friends when the incident unfolded, said she saw a man with a weapon who appeared ‘‘pretty out of it’’.
‘‘We got away from there pretty quickly because we didn’t know what else could happen.’’
The accused, in his 20s, was heavily intoxicated, a police spokesperson said.
Foodstuffs confirmed the incident happened at one of its shops, Four Square St Heliers.
Head of public relations Emma Wooster said a customer was hurt by a person who came into the store with a knife on Saturday evening. ‘‘The incident was completely random and unprovoked.’’
Police and ambulance were immediately called, she said.
‘‘This is a terrible thing to have happened. We’re extremely thankful no-one was seriously injured and we’re doing all we can to support the customer who was hurt and the team members in the store.’’
Wooster said they had a continued and high focus on keeping their team and customers safe, and violence or abuse of any kind was never tolerated in their stores.
‘‘While random incidents like this one may not always be preventable, this sad event shows just how much we must continue our focus on safety, using all the tools and measures we have available to help us to keep our teams and customers safe every day.’’
A local hadn’t heard about the incident until he visited yesterday. ‘‘. . . It’s the last place you’d think anything like this could happen.’’
Almost 1000 children have been missing from the education system for more than a year, the Government says, but educators fear the real number may be significantly higher.
Youth worker Brendon Crompton said the number didn’t line up with the reality of what he was seeing.
‘‘Around 1000 children is too