CBD violence: Newshub's bloody night out in Auckland

(Getty file)
(Getty file)

The Saturday night Newshub spends with St John Ambulance in Auckland’s CBD is dominated by dealing with comatose drunks left vulnerable to attacks and robberies, as well as patching up victims of assault.

Just after 4am closing, a young man outside a club has been kicked in the head and punched in the cheek.  When the ambulance arrives a woman is using a sweatshirt to stem the flow of blood from his scalp.

He doesn’t remember the attack.

Acting Auckland district operations manager Mike McAulay, who has spent more than a quarter of a century with St John, says that strongly suggests he’s been knocked unconscious.  

“It may not be a punch that can severely hurt you, but by the time you hit the ground you could have a life-threatening injury.”

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A bystander is also covered in blood splatters. The police take photos of the injuries before the victim’s taken to hospital for observation and to have his head cut patched up.

Earlier in the night, two other men get into a scuffle outside a strip of bars near the Viaduct.  It starts after one man repeatedly screams down his phone at a woman: “Where the f**k are you, you stupid bitch?”

A passer-by takes exception, blows are traded and they wrestle to the ground. One man puts the other in a choke hold, before the situation cools off.

It all happens while Newshub’s crew is waiting for a semi-conscious woman to be carried out of a nearby bar by staff waiting to close up.

When the ambulance service arrived she was slumped on a table inside the bar and unable to speak a full sentence.

St John analysed their 2015 callouts for Auckland's central city area. It reinforces the night Newshub experienced: assaults and unconscious patients are among the top five complaints the ambulance service attended.

Newshub.