Police cordoned off an area of Wellington's Lambton Quay on Wednesday morning. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
A 43-year-old man has been arrested in connection to the armed robbery of a currency exchange in Wellington this morning.
The No1 Currency on Lambton Quay was locked down by armed police just before 9.20am.
The man is due to appear in Wellington District Court tomorrow on a charge of aggravated robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.
A vehicle of interest was identified by Police in Lower Hutt at about 3.45pm, police said.
The vehicle was stopped a short time later by armed police on State Highway 58 at the Haywards Interchange.
"Police were armed as a precaution due to the risk of firearms being present in the car," Detective Senior Sergeant Tim Leitch said.
Eight officers had attended the scene at No1 Currency after a man pointed a handgun at staff and demanded cash before making off after obtaining an undisclosed amount of foreign currency.
A shop assistant next door said she saw staff members being led away by police.
"They were like, holding their chests and they looked like they were crying," she told RNZ. "Obviously it was a traumatising incident for them."
Staff members were not injured and there were no customers in the store at the time.
Retailers were supplying police with CCTV footage.
A nearby retailer, who did not want to be named, had said they were not aware of any disturbance until police started arriving. They said the situation was scary.
Police completed a scene examination and investigations were continuing.
The man sought by police had been described as "tall and thin, and possibly of Māori descent".
He was wearing dark clothing, a black baseball cap, a mask and backpack.