Police has confirmed that a woman has died following a car crash into a closed retail store earlier on Monday morning.
The incident was reported to emergency services that around 9:50 a.m. on Queen's Birthday morning after a red Nissan Tiida hatchback car hit Batra Fashion Villa. Initial indications were that one person was trapped in the vehicle.
Following the accident, police cordoned off the intersection between Great South Road (Papatoetoe), Kolmar Road and Charles Street.
Image: Sam Sword/NZ Herald
Police later confirmed that one person has died.
The owner of the shop said that the shop was closed and was about to open in another 15-20 minutes for the day.
Had the shop been open, the fatality of the incident would have been much higher given its Eid shopping period for the community and there would have been more staff and customers in the shop.
"This was going to be one of the busiest days for us because of Eid- if this had happened 10-15 minutes later, there would have been customers and staff inside- and I am relieved that our staff are OK," owner of the shop Karandeep Singh told Stuff.
Image: Google Maps
Batra Fashion Villa is adjacent to Batra Shoes, part of the same owner and the retail store sells ethnic Indian clothes, shoes and imitation jewellery.
Mr Singh said that the front of the shop was completely destroyed and many of the clothes and window displays have been damaged as a result of the crash.
The vehicle after the crash also caught fire and so the damage to the store and stock is much higher.
Image: Sam Sword/NZ Herald
The busy intersection- Great South Road, Charles Road, Kolmar Road- one of them leads to East Tamaki Road and then into the SH1 motorway was closed after the incident and opened around 1:30 p.m. once the place was cleaned up by emergency services.
St John Sent one ambulance and a rapid response vehicle to the scene.