Light armoured vehicles have been brought in to back up police at the scene of the Napier siege, where gunman Jan Molenaar is holed up in a house after allegedly shooting one officer dead and injuring three other men yesterday.

Police spokeswoman Kaye Calder said police asked the defence force for ``assistance with resources''.

The army had responded by sending two light armoured vehicles.

Napier Mail DECEASED: Senior Constable Len Snee.

She declined to comment how police would use them to resolve the standoff, saying only they were serving in a support role.

Three schools were closed today in Napier as a precautionary measure.

Parents and caregivers of Napier Central School, Napier Intermediate and Nelson Park School were being asked to make alternative arrangements for their children.

Supplied INJURED OFFICER: Bruce Miller.

``Parents will be advised if the situation changes,'' said police spokeswoman Kris McGechan.

Road blocks were in place at several major intersections and commuters were being asked to take alternative routes.

About 30 armed offenders squad (AOS) members and other specialist police staff from across the North Island are continuing to surround the house, Ms Calder said.

Supplied INJURED OFFICER: Grant Diver.

Police had contacted Mr Molenaar by phone and were attempting to negotiate with him.

NewtalkZB reported members of the Special Tactics Group, the police counter-terrorist and tactical wing, had joined AOS officers in the cordon around the house.

The journalist at the scene also reported three armoured vehicles had arrived in the area around the house, where former army reservist Mr Molenaar was holed up with a rifle and possibly explosives.

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Ms Calder declined to comment on whether other defence force staff specifically Counter Terrorist Tactical

Assault Group agents were also at the scene.

VICTIMS IN CRITICAL CONDITION

The two police officers and a member of the public who were injured in the Napier shooting are listed as critical, Police Minister Judith Collins said today.

Ms Collins, who was about to head for Napier, said she had been briefed on the situation.

``The gunman has been continuing to fire shots, as it has been described to me on the hour, every hour,'' she said on Radio New Zealand.

Asked about the wounded officers and the civilian, reported to live near the scene of the shooting, Ms Collins said: ``I've been told this morning they've been listed as critical.''

The wounded officers have been named as Senior Constable Bruce miller, 40, a community constable, and dog handler Senior Constable Grant Diver, 50.

The civilian has not been named.

Ms Collins said the evacuation was still going on as police removed neighbours or anyone who was in line of sight of the siege house.

``Obviously it's a very big task, it's a huge imposition on the people of Napier but the police say it has to be done,'' she said.

``They have asked for certain resources, I can't go into that. They're planning for contingencies, it's a very volatile situation.''

HEAVILY ARMED



Friends of the alleged gunman, Jan Molenaar, say he is a former territorial soldier and likely to be heavily armed.

One person described him as a ``one-man army'', and a friend told how he bade farewell to his partner as if he ``had already accepted his fate''.

Peter Molenaar, one of Jan's five brothers, said Jan sold a few tinnies to his mates, but was no big-time drug dealer and he had no gang connections.

He said his message to his brother would be to ``try and give yourself up''.

``..but it's hard to say at the moment what's going through someone's head.''

Speaking to Radio New Zealand this morning Peter said he and his brother were ``very close'' and had last seen each other a fortnight ago.

His brother had told him he knew he was being watched by police, he said.

Peter Molenaar did not know whether he would ever see his brother alive again.

``I'm not very sure about it. The way it's gone, it's gone way out of my hands and it's probably not likely.''

His brother's girlfriend, who left the house at the beginning of the police siege yesterday, rang him last night.

She told him: ``It was all under control and my brother just overreacted to the situation he flipped.''

Peter Molenaar said he was ``very sorry for what's happened here''.

``I didn't find out until late in the morning what happened I just went into shock.''

He said his family are very upset and have not been able to talk to their brother since the siege began.

The gunman spent most of yesterday under siege at his Napier home by heavily armed police after a drug search went tragically wrong.

Senior Constable Len Snee was killed and his colleagues Grant Diver and Bruce Miller and a neighbour were shot during an attempt to carry out a ``routine'' cannabis search warrant at 9.30am.

``This situation is a complete nightmare, perhaps it was a nightmare waiting to happen,'' said Molenaar's friend and business partner Arthur Hyde.

``The guy is a total Rambo, OK? I've never met another person that's fitter than him. He's a very good marksman, he's just the wrong person. Wrong person, wrong place, wrong time, the police should have f .th.th. ing known. That's their business.''

Members of the police's elite Special Tactics Group surrounded the Chaucer Rd property and attempted to negotiate with the gunman throughout yesterday. Some attempts prompted fresh bursts of gunfire from the house.

The gunman also shot at police as they tried in vain to retreive Mr Snee's body lying on the road beside his patrol car.

Police evacuated people from the area; a woman in pyjamas was seen running from the gunman's house.

A neighbour clutching his young child ran down the street, shielded by police. Pupils at several schools and neighbours were ordered to stay put by police.

Molenaar's friends said they doubted he would give himself up and police should not enter the house.

Molenaar was a part-time territorial force soldier, attached to the armoured corps, from 1982-88, and friends believe he is heavily armed, and they suspect he may have ``wired the place'' too.

``There's enough there to take that house off the face of the planet,'' friend Tony Moore said.

Mr Moore said Molenaar said goodbye to his partner, who left the property a short time after the seige began, as if he intended to die. ``He said 'Goodbye Hon', had a good blubber about it, and then: 'best you go'. So he's already accepted his fate.''

Mr Moore said he asked police to let him speak to Molenaar to talk him around but they rejected the offer.

Another friend Allan Roser described Molenaar as a ``one man army''. ``He's like a special forces type of character. It wouldn't surprise me if he had a bunker under there.''

Mr Hyde sent Molenaar a text message yesterday morning telling him to give himself up but did not get a response.

The gunman's mother, Anna, said she wanted to apologise to the dead officer's family and those who were injured in hospital.

She was struggling to understand what had happened. ``I don't know why they grow up and become vicious,'' she told TV One's Close Up.

``What are they trying to protect ... a silly marijuana plant? What a thing to protect, take someone's life. Now someone has been shot and two others I can't quite believe it really.''

She wanted to ask her son why he had not thought of the good things in his life, including his ``wonderful son ... he's going going to have to put up with this for the rest of his life.''