A police officer cordons off an area after a shooting incident in a residential neighbourhood in Auckland on June 19, 2020. An unarmed New Zealand police officer was shot dead on an Auckland street on June 19 in a rare fatal attack that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described as "devastating". (GREG BOWKER / AFP)

A 24-year-old man was arrested on Friday evening and charged with murder after a police officer was shot dead and another seriously wounded during a routine vehicle check earlier in the day, New Zealand police said.

Police investigating the case have charged the suspect with multiple serious offences including murder, attempted murder and dangerous driving causing injury.

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The man will appear in the Waitakere District Court in West Auckland on Saturday.

New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster confirmed that at around 10:30 am Friday, a vehicle of interest was seen by police on an Auckland street and a police unit attempted to stop the vehicle. 

A man, armed with a long-barreled firearm, got out of the vehicle and shot two officers. One officer was killed and the other seriously injured. 

The two officers were unarmed, which is usual procedure in New Zealand, where only specialist police like those at airports or in tactical response teams routinely carry guns

The two officers were unarmed, which is usual procedure in New Zealand, where only specialist police like those at airports or in tactical response teams routinely carry guns.

Schools and daycare centres near the scene of the incident were on lockdown as police searched for the shooter, who also injured a member of the public when fleeing by car.

The fatally wounded officer was the first in New Zealand, where gun crime remains relatively rare, to be killed in the line of duty in at least a decade.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the death was devastating.

“To lose a police officer is to lose someone working for all of us, but also a family member, someone’s loved one and friend,” Ardern said in a statement.

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New Zealand has tightened gun laws twice since a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch last year in the country’s worst peace-time mass shooting.

The country’s lawmakers on Thursday passed legislation to create a new firearms registry that licence holders will be required to update as they buy or sell guns.