Witnesses describe seeing a man being taken away by police at a west Auckland mall following reports of shots being fired

Images on social media appear to show several armed officers guarding the entrances and exits of New Lynn Mall on Great North Road.

Members of the public at the mall say they heard a boom and gunshots about 5:15 before seeing a man running through a parking lot.

Police say no gunshots have been fired and they've been looking for a person of interest in an earlier incident.

A retail workers says police arrested someone near the Cotton-On store.

Patrons of the Workshop bar - less than a kilometre from the mall - were shut into the bar after a man tried to smash through the glaring door.

A group of people confronted the man and tried to calm him down, and police arrived about 10 minutes later and took him away.