{"id":146549,"date":"2025-11-21T14:34:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T14:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/146549\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T14:34:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T14:34:17","slug":"sunlive-person-arrested-after-lockdown-in-katikati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/146549\/","title":{"rendered":"SunLive – Person arrested after lockdown in Katikati"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police have a person in custody after an hours-long armed operation in the Bay of Plenty town of Katikati.<\/p>\n

Two schools, an early childhood centre and a medical centre went into lockdown as armed police hunted a person of interest.<\/p>\n

Parents had earlier been asked to stay away from Katikati College and Katikati Primary School, but both schools have now posted online instructions for collecting children.<\/p>\n

Detective Senior Sergeant Natalie Flowerdew-Brown said police started their inquiries this morning to find the person, and advised the schools and centres to go into lockdown.<\/p>\n

She said armed police were present as a precaution and to ensure public safety.<\/p>\n

She thanked the community for their understanding and co-operation, and said charges would follow.<\/p>\n

A Hato Hone St John spokesperson said it was called to Katikati at 11.41am, and assessed one patient in a minor condition.<\/p>\n

\"\"Police and a\u00a0Hato Hone St John\u00a0ambulance at the intersection of Beach Rd and Park Rd.\u00a0 Photo \/ Supplied.<\/p>\n

An early childhood centre owner has described having to evacuate the children during the operation.<\/p>\n

Robins Nest Early Childhood Centre owner Zoe Farnath said the children in her team\u2019s care had been safely evacuated from the Beach Rd centre to the college.<\/p>\n

Farnath said her centre had 19 children in attendance this morning and five staff \u2013 including herself \u2013 on duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything was normal and then we just got a phone call to say put our lockdown procedure into place from the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was just after 11am.<\/p>\n

Farnath said their lockdown procedure was to bring everyone inside the centre and lock themselves into a room, then \u201cjust remain in place and out of sight\u201d.<\/p>\n

She knew nothing about what the police were responding to.<\/p>\n

Farnath said at roughly noon the police knocked on the centre\u2019s window.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went out and spoke to them and they said that it was probably wasn\u2019t the safest location for us and could we evacuate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farnath said the staff and children, as well as a parent who was nearby, had walked down Beach Rd and into the college buildings.<\/p>\n

\"\"Police and St John ambulance staff are at the scene. Photo \/ Cameron Avery<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parent is remaining in lockdown with us and their children, to give us a hand,\u201d said Farnath said earlier this afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been in contact with our parents to explain that we are now part of the lockdown at the college and they cannot come in to the premises to collect them at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farnath said were waiting direction from the police. The children are happy and content, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had ice blocks and have been watching\u00a0Bluey\u00a0on the TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have really strong procedures in place for this [type of event] but we were hoping we never had to use them.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Armed police at the intersection of Beach Rd and Park Rd in Katikati.\u00a0 Photo \/ Supplied.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s what we have them \u2013 and I\u2019m pretty confident in our procedures and we followed them and the police instructions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A witness to the evacuation said the children seemed \u201ccalm and collected\u201d, with some waving at police as they walked past.<\/p>\n

Katikati College said on Facebook just after 3pm that police had given clearance for students to be collected from the Dave Hume Pool back field entrance only.<\/p>\n

Parents were asked to enter from that side, not Beach Rd.<\/p>\n

Students must be signed out by their designated caregiver. Bus students would be walked to a pickup point for the buses.<\/p>\n

Katikati Primary School\u2019s latest post said the lockdown was still active, but police had \u201cokayed\u201d children to be picked up and signed out from their classrooms.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/p>\n

The college had earlier said in a social media post it had been directed by police to go into lockdown following an incident in the area. It said all students were safe and accounted for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are awaiting the all-clear from the police and will advise the community when we receive this. In the meantime, please do not come into school and avoid contacting the school so that we are able to keep communication lines open.<\/p>\n

\"\"A police officer stands guard in Katikati. Photo \/ Cameron Avery<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate that this may be a difficult time for everyone as we work through this situation. Please be assured that everyone on the school site is safe. Thank you for your support during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A parent of a primary school student who had been visiting the college told NZME when she had gone to collect her child, she was told the school was in lockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at the end of the day, the school\u2019s doing the right thing and the police are doing everything they should, so, so you\u2019re not concerned, you\u2019re just patiently waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katikati Primary School also posted that the school was in lockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll children are safe and accounted for. Awaiting instructions from police.”<\/p>\n

\"\"Emergency services are at an incident in Katikati. Photo \/ Cameron Avery<\/p>\n

Parents were asked not to call or come to the school, and to check Facebook for updates.<\/p>\n

A caller to\u00a0SunLive\u00a0said police had cordoned off Beach Rd and armed officers were \u201cstanding guard\u201d at the Polley Cres and Park Rd intersections.<\/p>\n

Traffic was being diverted around those streets, the caller said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Emergency services at an incident in Katikati. Photo \/ Supplied.<\/p>\n

Parents and bystanders were gathered near Katikati College and a nearby dairy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some parents wanting to know when it\u2019s all going to lift, but no one is too concerned at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 12.50pm, the caller said police wearing all black had arrived, and a Hato Hone St John\u00a0ambulance\u00a0unit had set up nearby.<\/p>\n

Katikati Medical Centre said on its Facebook page that it had been directed by police to go into lockdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask that people stay away for the time being and we will update when we have further information. While this is in place we kindly ask that people refrain from phoning the practice unless necessary at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have a person in custody after an hours-long armed operation in the Bay of Plenty town of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-146549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}