Pursuit crash wouldn't have happened if driver obeyed lockdown - police

Two people fleeing the police and an officer were injured in a crash late on Friday night.

Police said they tried to stop a "suspicious vehicle" on Gainsborough St in Manurewa just after 11pm, but the driver instead fled.

"Police lost sight of the vehicle and continued in the direction they had seen it travelling in," said Insp Daniel Meade of Counties Manukau police.

"The fleeing vehicle continued through a T-intersection at speed directly into the path of another police vehicle responding to the incident."

Both vehicles were seriously damaged. The pair in the fleeing vehicle were seriously hurt, as was a dog handler in the police vehicle.

Police said the serious crash unit is investigating and the Independent Police Conduct Authority will be notified.

"If these people were complying with the conditions of the coronavirus lockdown, this would not have happened," Meade told NZME.

Non-essential travel is not allowed under the lockdown rules currently in place, intended to halt the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which has killed more than 100,000 people worldwide.