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Katie Ham/Stuff
Emergency services respond to a car fire on Quay St in the Auckland CBD.
A person has died in a “horrible” car fire in downtown Auckland.
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A police spokesperson said the car fire on Quay St was reported about 11.40am.
“[Firefighters] have extinguished the fire and police have established that one person was in the car at the time of the fire, and this person is deceased.”
The circumstances of the fire are not yet clear, the police spokesperson said.
The burnt out car can be seen in the middle of the road ferry terminal. Police detectives are inspecting the area, which has been cordoned off.
“Quay St is expected be blocked for several hours and people are asked to avoid the area.”
A senior Fire and Emergency source told Stuff the scene was being treated as a crime scene.
A family who was at the nearby Maritime Museum said they heard a “massive bang”.
“The kids came running towards me, they were really scared,” the father said.
“The ground literally trembled underneath us.”
A woman who witnessed the incident said she was eating at a nearby restaurant when they were evacuated mid-meal.
She said she could immediately smell petrol and then saw flames.
”It was horrible,” she said.
Multiple witnesses described seeing a man douse the vehicle in petrol and set it alight.
Auckland Transport tweeted that bus routes 27H, 27W and 70 would miss the first and last stop of their routes.
MORE TO COME.
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