(File photo) Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Police are investigating a robbery of a jewellery store in South Auckland.
A group of people broke into Sparkles Jewellers on Great South Road in Papatoetoe just after 5pm today.
Police said one of the employees working in the store was assaulted.
And witnesses captured footage of at least five people in black hoodies fleeing in a car.
Earlier today assistant police commissioner Richard Chambers told RNZ about 60 percent of offenders from the recent spate of ram raids and smash and grabs had not been identified.
In Auckland and Waikato there more than 500 people had been charged, with more than 2000 charges, as the result of investigations into this type of crime, since February.
A Takapuna jewellery store announced last week that it would remain closed as a result of three ram-raid or smash and grab robberies there this year.