Police are investigating after two Christchurch dairies were targeted in aggravated robberies just minutes apart last night, leaving two employees injured, The New Zealand Herald has reported.
Police said the first incident occurred at Mairehau Food Market on Briggs Road in Shirley at about 8.10pm, when two people entered the store armed with a weapon. An employee was assaulted during the robbery, and the offenders fled in a vehicle reported stolen.
Hato Hone St John said one person was assessed at the scene in a moderate condition before later travelling to Christchurch Hospital in a private car.
According to the report by Herald, about 10 minutes later, police received a second report from Gayhurst Dairy on McBratneys Road, around 6km away, where two armed offenders entered the store, assaulted a worker and targeted cash before escaping in a vehicle.
Senior Sergeant Seb Kohnke told Herald that the injured employee was taken to hospital with moderate injuries.
Herald visited the site this afternoon, where both stores had reopened, but staff appeared shaken and declined to comment.
Outside Gayhurst Dairy, blood that had been on the pavement had been washed away.
Burwood city councillor Kelly Barber told Herald that he was appalled by the “unnecessarily violent behaviour”.
“Dairy owners provide a really important service in our small community, and often they’re small family businesses just trying to make a living like the rest of us,” Herald quoted Barber as saying.
“I’m really frustrated that they have to go through these sorts of situations. I wish the police every success in apprehending these violent thieves," Herald quoted.
He urged the public to avoid intervening during such incidents.
“These people are not in their right mind if they’re robbing dairies, and [the public] probably just need to let the police do their work,” he told Herald.
The Gayhurst Dairy has previously been the site of a serious armed robbery in 2012.