Caught on a cellphone was a stolen white van with its back door wide open, speeding through east Christchurch and fleeing police.
The van screeches to a stop to get around traffic, nearly hitting a pedestrian and scraping a power pole to get passed.
Witness Sam Heselwood filmed it all on his cellphone.
The end result of the incident was the white van being involved in a hit-and-run - killing a pedestrian in the centre of New Brighton's shopping area.
"I heard maybe 10 sirens going around real loud a lot of commotion tyres screeching," one resident told Newshub. "And then it just stopped and it was all dead quiet."
According to police, a vehicle that had failed to stop was chased.
"A Subaru Legacy came around the corner and one cop car chasing him at the time and 10 minutes later it came back probably doing 200 kilometres coming back the other way," Heselwood said.
Police abandoned the pursuit - arresting two people. The third occupant stole the white van, ramming a police dog vehicle and hitting the pedestrian.
The victim, a man, is said to have lived locally - in a Green Bedford van.
"It's pretty sad," Heselwood told Newshub. "It was pretty crazy - it's probably something that wasn't a big deal, and has taken someone's life and that is not good."
It was a day's drama that led to a police chase, and claimed a person's life.
Newshub.
