An eight-year-old boy has kicked a portaloo contractor as tensions escalate at an anti-mandate protest at Dunedin's Octagon.
The altercation took place on Thursday after a protester verbally abused one of the workers following the council's cancellation of the contract.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond told Stuff the worker was removing the portaloos when the woman started yelling and the boy ran out of a nearby tent, kicked them in the leg and then retreated to the tent.
It comes after Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins was verbally abused by protesters during an interview with Newshub on Thursday.
The interview followed Dunedin City Council issuing formal warnings to the Octagon occupiers to leave by midday on Monday after a two-month stay.
"Why are you wearing a mask if there's no mandate?" one protester said.
But things turned very ugly, very quickly.
"You f***ing c**t," an occupier said. "You f***ing miserable little s**t."
Hawkins then retreated to a safer space.
"It's safe to say they're not enthusiastic about leaving," he said.
But leave is what the group has been ordered to do. Despite telling Newshub a month ago the Dunedin City Council couldn't pick and choose who had the right to protest, Hawkins has now made that choice.
"I think what's changed is that what we were told what the protest was about in the beginning has happened," Hawkins said.
For two months the protesters have occupied the heart of Dunedin.
"It's too long, it's time to go," one resident said.
"It's about time they move on," said another.
That message was echoed in Christchurch where another occupation has sprung up, this time in the residential red zone.
The Christchurch City Council is still figuring out if the area, owned by Land Information New Zealand, was considered a park and subject to bylaws.
"The residents want these people gone - there's no reason for them to be here, we don't want them in our area, they're not our people," Burwood Community Board Member Bebe Frayle said.
