Woman arrested after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s electoral office in Auckland was damaged

• Police received a report of “deliberate damage” at Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s electoral office in Auckland on Thursday morning.
• Witnesses saw a person smash through a glass door, with smug that comes out of the building afterwards.
• What turned out to be a samurai sword on the ground.
• at 9:03 a.m., stuff receive an email from a person claiming responsibility for the incident.
• At 11:30 a.m., police confirmed they had arrested a 57-year-old woman.
• Deputy Prime Minister: “Always worrying” to see an attack on a politician’s office.

Police arrested a woman on Thursday in connection with the attack on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s electoral office.

The front door of the Prime Minister’s office in Morningside, Auckland, was slammed and what appeared to be a samurai sword lay nearby.

Police said the 57-year-old was arrested at a Coatesville home and taken into custody.

Emergency services visited the Ardern polling station shortly after 8 a.m. on Thursday.

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A neighbor, who declined to be named, said he saw a person walking across the road to the office and smashing the front doors with a tool.

He said he saw the person throw something in through a hole in the door, after which smoke came out of the building shortly after.

At 9:03 a.m., a person sent an email to: stuff, claim responsibility for the incident.

“This morning at 8:20 am I punched a hole in the door of her polling station and dropped the bomb in it [sic]’ the email read.

A stuff A reporter at the scene saw smoke and heard firefighters warn the owner of a nearby store to “don’t touch the machete handle.”

At 10 a.m., a plainclothes officer could be seen putting the blade knife in an evidence bag.

The fire service responded to an incident on New North Rd at 8:27 a.m. Four fire trucks were present, but all emergency services appeared to have left around noon.

Police confirmed they had received a report of what they are treating as “deliberate damage” involving an “object thrown through a window”.

No injuries were reported and the building was uninhabited at the time, police said.

A scene investigation will be conducted and investigations continue.

A spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office confirmed she was aware of the incident but was still seeking more information.

The spokeswoman said the prime minister’s office never commented on security issues, so would not answer questions about whether polling stations, or Ardern himself, would see increased security levels in the wake of the attack.

The prime minister also declined to comment on the arrest, as the case is now a police matter, the spokesman said.

Ardern is currently in Antarctica for the 65th anniversary of Scott Base, New Zealand’s permanent presence and research facility on the ice continent.

Deb Fong, owner of a yoga studio next to the polling station, said she smelled smoke in her studio on Thursday morning.

She did not see the incident, but she did see the smashed window at the front of the building.

“You just have to wonder how people get so mad.

“Fortunately, it was before one of the staff came in,” Fong said.

She said there had been a few incidents at Ardern’s electoral committee before, but this one was “particularly freaky”.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said it was “always worrying” to see an attack on a minister of parliament.

“Unfortunately, they happen fairly regularly. I do notice that the police have arrested one person,” he said.

Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.