A 20-year-old man is in hospital after being arrested over a vicious crime spree on the far south coast of New South Wales left one woman dead and two men critically injured.
Police said the man was taken to the South East Regional Hospital overnight for assessment and remains under police guard.
He was taken into custody after a stabbing, carjacking and hammer attack in a rampage that spanned multiple towns.
At about 3:35pm on Friday a passing motorist was flagged down by a 71-year-old man, who had been stabbed at his home in East Street, Bega.
When emergency services arrived, they found the man and his 69-year-old wife critically injured.
Another local, Bob Russell, said he and wife Judy arrived on the scene after the fact and saw the man lying on the footpath with "blood everywhere".
The woman died at South East Regional Hospital, while the man remains in a critical condition after being airlifted to St George Hospital in Sydney.
Road blocks were put in place and an extensive search began, and South Coast police officers were soon in a car chase with a 20-year-old man, who was driving the couple's car.
An hour after emergency services became aware of the initial incident, a 55-year-old man was allegedly hit in the head with a hammer by the same 20-year-old man during a carjacking on Sapphire Coast Drive in Bournda.
The 55-year-old man was airlifted to St George Hospital where he remains in a critical condition.
A woman escaped uninjured and the car was crashed 500 metres down the road, with the driver escaping into bushland.
At 8:20pm on Friday evening, a 20 year-old man was arrested and taken to Bega Police Station before being moved to South East Regional Hospital.
South Coast Police District detectives, assisted by the State Crime Command's homicide squad, are investigating the incident.
