Two witnesses of a stabbing incident at an Auckland dairy say they were terrified the offender would come after them as they watched him stagger out of the shop from a neighbouring property.

Police arrested a 24-year-old man after two people were wounded at the New Windsor Dairy and Lotto shop about 10.30am, with a male victim needing treatment for critical injuries at Auckland City Hospital.

Another witness, the owner of an adjacent shop, told Stuff one of the victims was stabbed in the neck and cheek. The witness said a woman “begged” the man to take any money but to spare her.

Shoppers inside at the time of the attack stopped the man and held him down, police said, and then tended to both victims.

A 16 and 15-year-old, and a 10-year-old sibling, were watching television at home as the incident unfolded outside their window.

“He came out of the shops and we were scared because we thought he was going to run towards the house,” one of the teens told the Herald.

A person was critically injured at Auckland's New Windsor Dairy. Photo / Hayden Woodward

The children then saw paramedics carry the victim out of the shop on a stretcher. A bloodied woman was also seen being led to a waiting ambulance.

They said the offender was of average height, large build and was wearing a grey bloodstained T-shirt.

The victim’s distraught family and friends arrived at the scene shortly after the incident.

One of the victim’s sons ran to his mother in the back of the ambulance.

A St John Ambulance spokesman said they took one person to hospital in a critical condition and another in a moderate condition shortly after 10.30am.

Police cordoned off the block of shops on the corner of Maioro St and New Windsor Rd and would remain at the scene throughout the day.

Police arrested a 24-year-old man after a violent assault at an Auckland dairy this morning. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Detective Inspector Glen Baldwin, of the Auckland City criminal investigation branch, said police were in the early stages of their investigations.

One police officer at the scene could be heard telling the victim’s son, “I’m so sorry this has happened.”

Chairman of the Dairy and Business Owners’ Group Sunny Kaushal said news of the attack was “heartbreaking.

 “We have already had deaths in our industry and we were fearing more violence because the government is failing to take any action. New Zealanders are sick and tired of the lawlessness.”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the attack was “utterly unacceptable”.

“People should be safe in their businesses. I’m going to back the police completely ... and where necessary we are changing the law to be able to give the police more tools to do that,” Hipkins said.

The New Windsor dairy and Lotto shop was the target of another brutal attack in 2008 when a teenage boy allegedly stormed inside and stabbed the owner.

Shopkeeper Shashikant Prema was taken to Auckland City Hospital with stab wounds to his neck and back.

The attack left Prema with a punctured lung and nerve damage in his left arm.

He spoke to the Herald from his hospital bed, saying he thought he would have died had he not run out of the shop after being slashed from across the counter.

“I’m pretty lucky to be alive,” he said at the time.

The father of three said, “at the end of the day you just carry on - that’s our work, that’s our business”.

His wife, Damyanti Prema, who had been robbed at gunpoint in the past, said she initially wondered whether it was worth keeping the business after the attack in 2008.

But, like her husband, she said she would not let anyone victimise her again by selling up or living in fear.

“You are in fear, but you have to get over it,” she said at the time.

Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.