Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
Police in Auckland are searching for a young woman after an assault on a bus on New Year's Day.
Officers were called just after 7:30pm to reports of a couple being assaulted onboard a bus near the intersection of Hepburn Street and Ponsonby Road.
The couple had a number of personal items stolen, and one of them suffered wounds to his hands and mouth.
One of the victims, who RNZ agreed not to name, said the bus had missed a stop when two people on-board became aggressive.
"My partner told him to just calm down, just cool it basically, non-aggressive, no nothing," they said.
"Suddenly, this guy just whips out something that looks like a prison shank, and then it just all happened so fast."
Their partner was still recovering from the attack, the victim said.
"It's uncomfortable, it's left a lot of scar tissue ... it's been physically damaging as well," they said.
The victim said they had two bags stolen, with about $3000 worth of items inside.
The attack had made them very wary, they said.
"I don't want to catch buses again," they said.
"I don't really like walking around the streets because you don't really know what's around the next corner anymore. It's made me very wary of other people as well."
It was not good enough that one of the offenders was still out in the community, the victim said.
"We just don't think it's good enough that there's someone still out there that can commit such a heinous act, and is still out there on the streets and can do it to someone else."
Inspector Alisse Robertson, Auckland City West Area Commander, told RNZ police were able to identify and arrest a young man in relation to the attack. He is currently going through Youth Aid.
"We are following positive lines of enquiry in regard to the second offender, a young female," she said.
"Police will continue to investigate instances involving violence aboard our public transport network, and will hold offending to account."
Auckland Transport's group manager of public transport Operations Rachel Cara said they were aware of the attack.
"There is absolutely no place for violent and antisocial behaviour in Auckland and we're continuing to work closely with police and the community to address this societal issue and keep our passengers safe," she said.
"All of our buses are fitted with CCTV and we have Transport Officers out and about to manage the safety and security of the public transport network."
Cara said there were more than 1.6 million trips on public transport each week, and incidents like the attack were rare.
The victim said they wanted people to be aware of what could happen.
"We don't want it to happen to anyone else," they said.
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