Man surrenders after armed stand-off in NZ

The man at the centre of New Zealand's Bay of Plenty stand-off after four police officers were shot has surrendered to police.

The man at the centre of an armed stand-off after four police officers were shot has surrendered to police in New Zealand.

The man was taken into custody without incident on Thursday morning, police say.

He would be given a medical check up and be taken to Whakatane police station, where he would be interviewed, Police Commissioner Mike Bush says.

Armed police had been surrounding the property, near Kawerau in Bay of Plenty, since Wednesday afternoon.

Officers had gone to apprehend someone shooting at a police cannabis-spotting aircraft but four of them were shot. None of their injuries was life-threatening.

The family of the alleged gunman have condemned police handling of the situation.

They had remained at the cordon scared he would be shot, said a spokeswoman reading a statement to assembled media before the man gave himself up.

She said they could have ended it on Wednesday afternoon if the police Maori liaison officer had been allowed to go in and collect the man.

But Mr Bush dismissed the idea, saying professionals were dealing with the situation and it would be "really wrong" for anyone else to walk in.

"We have a good picture of what happened there yesterday and there's no way we'd send anyone else into that environment," he told TV3.

Two of the shot officers had already been discharged from hospital, one transferred to Waikato Hospital in a serious but stable condition and the fourth, who was shot in the hand, will get further treatment on Thursday.

Mr Bush said he visited the two officers still in hospital and said they were in good spirits.


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Source: AAP



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