An Auckland jewellery store owner hit in the head with a hammer during a brutal armed robbery is undergoing emergency surgery.
CCTV footage viewed by RNZ shows a group of masked robbers bursting through the front door of Pooja Jewellers in Papatoetoe on Sunday afternoon, grabbing trays of jewellery and attacking the owner.
Smash-and-grab robberies of jewellery stores have become common, and some businesses are opting to close down rather than deal with the threat posed by criminals.
The footage showed women and children huddling at the back of the shop as armed robbers burst through the high-security doors, while Gurdeep Singh ran to confront them and protect his store.
Singh fell back, clutching his head in pain after being hit repeatedly with a hammer, before his son, Sunny Luther, could be seen carrying a sword to try and scare off the attackers.
Luther was too distressed to speak to RNZ on tape, while his father underwent emergency surgery on Monday afternoon.
The family had been left traumatised, Indian Business Association general secretary Jaspreet Kandhari said.
"The whole family was present, the incident that happened last week, they were all in the shop," he said.
"The whole family will stay in the trauma for quite a long [time]."
Police speak to staff and members of the public outside Pooja Jewellers. Photo: Supplied/Sunny Kaushal
Kandhari said such attacks were becoming an issue in the area.
"Papatoetoe has three, four jewellers shops, and all of them have been attacked at one point in time," he said.
"In such towns, there needs to be more, and permanent, deployment of some police officers."
Nearby business owner, Harish Lodhia, said he had suffered a similar attack.
"We went through the same ordeal on [10 February] this year, where 12 people cleaned us out," Lodhia said.
"My girls are still traumatised, we are shaken, we have basically been pushed back five years of our hard work, [it's] been taken away from us in just two minutes."
He said people had told him to get out of Papatoetoe, but that would not be fair to his staff.
"It's difficult to just walk away," Lodhia said.
"And knowing that I have 10 or 12 staff who rely on me to provide them their bread on their table, it's not something we just want to walk away from.
"They have been very loyal staff, and abandoning them in their time of need and hardship is something very difficult to digest."
Hours before the attack on Sunday, the government announced 63 staff would be deployed into new community beat teams across Auckland's three policing districts, Wellington and Christchurch over the next two years.
Twenty-one officers would go into Auckland's troubled central city by the start of July, increasing 51 officers by the end of July.
Lodhia said the government action was better late than never.
"Hopefully, we will see some drastic changes in people's attitudes, and the confidence of doing business in this country comes back," he said.
"Only time will tell."
Dairy and Business Owners Group chair Sunny Kaushal agreed.
"We must have the visibility. Also, every incident, irrespective of how small it is, should be investigated, all burglaries should be investigated," he said.
"We need to go back [to the] pre-2017 model of police, that's what is needed."
Kaushal said the attack had rocked the community.
"How these offenders forced entry into [Singh's] shop and assaulted him and others, was very, very shocking," he said.
"It has left behind huge trauma, pain, and destruction."
