Gunman kills two in horror Auckland CBD rampage

The dramatic moment heavily armed officers stopped the gunman who opened fire in Auckland’s CBD has been revealed.

Three people are dead, including the gunman, and at least six others are injured after an armed man stormed a construction site in Auckland’s CBD hours before the Women’s World Cup opening match.

Police said the attack in Auckland’s downtown area was an isolated incident and was not a “national security” incident.

Matu Tangi Matua Reid has been named as the Auckland gunman.

Police officers cordon off the site of the shooting. Picture: AFP

A bloodied police officer at the scene of the shooting. Picture: 1News

The 24-year-old shooter, who has been identified as Matu Tangi Matua Reid, was wearing an ankle monitor when he stormed the Deloitte building, which was undergoing renovation, on lower Queen Street about 7am local time (5am AEST) on Thursday morning.

Construction workers in the building have told of the terrifying moment the shooter, armed with a pump action shotgun, came up the stairs yelling at them to go up to the roof or he would shoot them.

Armed police and construction workers in Auckland after the shooting. Picture: Jason Oxenham/NZ Herald

Workers told the NZ Herald they began to leave the building when the fire alarm went off but it was only when people started running and shouting they realised it was not an emergency drill.

One worker, who came across the gunman in the stairwell, went up towards the roof of the 21-storey building then hid on another floor of the building with a colleague before reaching the top of the tower.

“I’m shaken,” the man told the NZ Herald.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, speaking at a media briefing, offered his condolences to the family and friends of colleagues and victims.

He said his investigation team was working to determine the cause of the shooting.

Tradies seen ducking for cover during the gun rampage. Picture: Stuff.co.nz

He said police were at the site within minutes of receiving multiple calls.

Heavily armed officers ran up 21 flights of stairs to begin their hunt for the gunman.

They finally found him hiding in a lift shaft at the 18th floor level, a source close to the scene revealed.

There was a brief firefight in which one officer was injured but the gunman was killed. One officer on the scene privately confirmed: “We got him. There was lots of blood.”

The offender made his way up the site, and members of the public were evacuated whenever possible.

Coster said the officer will receive surgery today.

“This was a terrifying experience.”

Earlier, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed there was no “political or ideological motive” for the shooting.

He said the alleged shooter was armed with a pump action shotgun when he walked through the upper levels of the building.

An injured man is led to an ambulance.

Auckland’s CBD is in shutdown.

There is no change to NZ’s national security threat level...This appears to be the actions of one individual,” Mr Hipkins said.

In the aftermath of the incident, New Zealand Football, who are set to get the Women’s World Cup underway against Norway at 5pm AEST, released a statement confirming all players were safe and that the match would go ahead.

New Zealand Sports minister Grant Robertson said he had spoken to FIFA officials and the tournament will go ahead as planned.

AUSSIE WOMAN TELLS OF TERROR

An Australian woman living in New Zealand has told how she fled for cover in the chaos of the Auckland CBD gun rampage.

Erin Sokolowsky told the Today show on Thursday that she was on her way to work on Auckland’s Collins Street when she got caught up in the chaos. “I haven’t seen an incident this big in a while, so clearly something was going on,” she said.

“Within a minute of walking past (the construction site), waiting for the lights, gunfire started and people started running left, right and centre.

“They said five shots. It sounded like more than that. Really loud and felt really close and we couldn’t hear or see where it was coming from.

“The best thing we can do is run and hid behind a wall and hightail it out of there.”

Ms Sokolowsky told host Karl Stefanovic the incident was terrifying.

“I would definitely say I have never experienced anything like that before, like something you see on movies,” she said.

Ms Sokolowsky praised the response of police who quickly cordoned off the area.

Police near the scene of the shooting. Picture: Twitter

Multiple people are dead after the massacre. Picture: Twitter

An initial report said there were two gunmen at the scene, which was near The Cloud, a FIFA fan zone set up for the Women’s World Cup, but it was later confirmed one gunman had carried out the attack.

Around 100 tradies were told by police to go to the top of the Deloitte building to take cover after shots were fired, one construction worker told Stuff NZ.

Witnesses told NZ media they had heard “a flurry of shots” and a wounded police officer was seen to exit a construction site in lower Queen Street.

At least six people were wounded, three seriously, according to St John Ambulance.

“Hato Hone St John was notified of an incident on Queen Street, Auckland, at 7.20am,” St John said.

“Multiple vehicles have been dispatched. Ambulance crews have treated three patients with serious injuries, and three patients with moderate injuries. More details will be provided as they come to hand.”

An eyewitness called Mick said he was in the building when he heard a gunshot, then another four.

“We barricaded the door to the office we were sitting in and started hiding under the desk,” he told TV1.

“It was daunting because the door was quite slim and someone could have pulled it off,” he said. “Being young you don’t think of mortality too much but sitting there drove it in.”

Mick said there were around 100 people on the site at the time.

He said he and colleagues tried to run when the shots seemed to stop, and saw the gunman standing in a stairwell.

“Everyone scattered,” he said. “I saw a hard hat with blood spattered all over it. Then we ran behind one of these doors and found eight other people there, we could see the guy walking around with his gun. After that we ran back into the office and barricaded the door.”

The trial into New Zealand’s 2019 White Island volcanic eruption in the Auckland District Court has been stopped as a result of the incident.

More to come