Five people have been injured, two seriously, after a multiple-vehicle crash in Tauranga.
A person had to be cut out of a car after the crash on State Highway 29a just a few hundred metres from Maungatapu Bridge, on the Baypark side.
St John ambulance said two people were seriously injured and three others suffered minor injuries.
Fire Service shift manager Daniel Nicholson said firefighters extricated a patient in a serious condition who was then taken to Tauranga Hospital by ambulance.
A police spokeswoman said SH29a was blocked from both directions and police were putting diversions in place.
A reporter at the scene said traffic had built up and it was "a shocker" from the Baypark roundabout as police told drivers to turn around.
The New Zealand Transport Agency advised motorists to use alternative routes.
A caller to the Bay of Plenty Times said he drove past the collision near the bridge.
"One of the motors has come clean out of the car," he said. "It looked pretty bad."
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