Last night Newmarket train station was the scene of an armed standoff between police and a man accused of robbery. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Newmarket Train Station came to a halt last night during a tense 20 minute encounter between police and a man accused of armed robbery.
Police said the 28-year-old man entered a shop in Newmarket and pointed a gun at one of the staff members.
When police responded at about 8.30pm, the man fled to the nearby train station and boarded a train.
Police caught him fleeing from the next stop, Kingsland Station, at 8.50pm and took him into custody, a police spokesperson said.
A witness told RNZ they walked in on the scene on their way home from work.
"I just turned up at the railway station ... to be confronted with about four or five police officers with large, what appeared to be assault rifles, pointing at me," he said.
"They just said 'get out,' I wasn't going to argue with them."
He didn't know how to react.
"I actually put my hands up," he said. "They literally had the guns pointing at me."
Auckland Transport said it received a request from police to hold trains from Newmarket Station shortly after the man fled, and it restarted them about 15 minutes later.
Police said the man would appear in Auckland District Court later this month charged with assault with intent to rob with a firearm.