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Police shot a man after allegedly shooting a police dog during an incident near Dargaville, Northland.
Police said the couple were separately airlifted to hospital and veterinary surgery for treatment after the shooting in the rural settlement of Tangowahine.
Superintendent Tony Hill said officers were still working to understand what happened, but said the man was shot by an officer after he shot the police dog.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
The Group of Veterinary Specialists, at Mt Albert in Auckland, has a team of experts in complex surgery.
Police were called to the area at 9.17am after a member of the public reported a suspicious person on Tangowahine Valley Rd.
“We are in the early stages of establishing what exactly happened, but an update will be provided as soon as it is available,” Hill said.
The injured dog has been airlifted to the Veterinary Specialist Group on the Auckland Unitec campus in Mt Albert, which performs complex animal surgeries.
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
Staff from the Veterinary Specialist Group rushed to meet the shot dog when the helicopter carrying it landed.
Staff were seen running to meet Northland’s rescue helicopter as it landed, and then loading the dog onto a stretcher with a drip attached.
There was also a police car at the veterinary clinic.
At around 12.30pm, two police officers were standing guard at the scene of the incident, cordoning off Tangowahine Valley Rd at the intersection of Avoca Rd.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
Police are at the cordon blocking State Highway 14 in Tangowahine.
Officers turned a Fonterra truck attempting to use the highway and advised the driver to take an alternate route.
The rural area has limited telephone reception and is surrounded by hills and farmland.
The side streets of Tangowahine Valley Rd are unsealed and unmarked gravel roads.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
More police arrive at the cordon.
A local resident said he had heard many police cars traveling down State Highway 14, starting just before 10 a.m.
She said that around 10:45 a.m. she had seen a dog driving a car along with two undercover police cars.
At Tangowahine School, classes continued normally, Principal Huw Wainwright said.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
Police were seen at the cordon turning a truck attempting to travel down the closed highway.
He said police had told staff that an incident was unfolding, but had not provided details of what had happened or where.
The school was not closed, he said, adding: “The police have not advised us to do anything out of the ordinary.
“We have not informed the students just to keep them safe,” he said.
The shooting is the latest in a series of gun incidents in Northland.
Less than a month ago, two people were injured in a shooting from a vehicle in Kaitaia, in the far north.
One person was shot in the foot and another in the leg when their parked car was hit by a burst of bullets from a passing vehicle.
In October, a police vehicle was shot in Kerikeri. The shooting was a random attack on a police officer, who was driving down State Highway 11 when she was stopped by a car in front of her at around 4.15 a.m.
Two men got out of their vehicle and shot the officer as she was backing up to safety.
The incident saw temporarily armed police officers in pursuit of those responsible.
