Police are investigating an attack of a 69-year-old woman on August 8 while on an East Auckland bus.
It comes as a second attack happened on August 14 when a 78-year-old woman was attacked on a North Shore bus.
The woman, Zhimin Zhang, is still traumatised by the incident, according to her daughter, Grace Zhi.
“For the first few days she was quite anxious, but her physical injuries have gotten better,” Zhi said, explaining her mother was punched by one of the offenders.
Police say the incident happened at about 3.20pm, when the woman was sitting on a bus stop on Queens Road in Panmure.
“The victim was approached by a group of three people and had her cell phone snatched from her hands. She tried to hold on to her phone and was dragged from the bus,” a police spokesperson told 1 NEWS.
“A struggle has ensued and the offenders have eventually left when members of the public approached them.
“Police are investigating this incident which would have been very frightening for the victim.”
The group of offenders is reported to police as being two females and one male.
Police are following a number of lines of inquiry and ask anyone with information to contact them by calling 105 quoting file number 210812/6334.
Zhi says her mother often takes the 711 bus from her East Auckland home to Greenlane to attend a choir group.
Zhi told 1 NEWS the group got on the bus somewhere near Pakuranga Road and “snatched my mum’s mobile phone when they got off on Queens Road, Panmure”.
“My mum instinctively grabbed one of them at that time and wanted to get her phone back. So they violently pushed her and dragged her off the bus and down to the concrete floor.
“At one point, one of the females pulled her knife out to cut off the strap of her crossbody bag which was held by my mum in sake of keeping her from running off. Fortunately she didn’t use that knife to my mum.
“This incident left my mum badly shaken up and physically injured. We have read the media reports about the increasing crimes across Auckland recently, but we were still so shocked that it had happened in the broad daylight and on the public transport which the government always encourages people to take.”
Zhi says police were unable to retrieve CCTV footage from the bus company due to level 4 restrictions but is hoping police will be able to get footage soon so the offenders will “be brought to justice”.
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