Police have shot and killed a person as a planned search warrant was being carried out in Frankton, Hamilton.

The shooting occurred at a property on Grasslands Place, in a semi-industrial area of Frankton.

Photo: RNZ/ Andrew McRae

The Armed Offenders Squad and the Criminal Investigation Branch members were also at the address when the incident took place.

Police confirmed the incident and said the person had died. A cordon is in place and remained overnight.

About half a dozen police officers and a police car were outside the scene.

Police would not release any other details, but said a media conference would be held in Hamilton about 9.30am on Wednesday.

"Investigations into the incident are ongoing and police are working to establish details of exactly what happened," police said in a statement.

"The scene will be contained overnight and the Independent Police Conduct Authority has been notified, as is standard for such incidents."

Eyewitness describes frightening scene

Paula Simmonds said she witnessed the shooting and heard about three or four rounds go off.

She was picking up her dog at about 6.30pm from a dog daycare centre opposite the building where the shooting took place.

"And then the next minute there was police zooming down the road and they turned off their lights and then they shot into the place and my daughter and I were in the car and we said 'oh my god there's shots, there's shots fired', and so we locked the doors of course as you do and then watched it all unfold."

About 10 minutes later an ambulance turned up.

Ms Simmonds said she was stopped by police and questioned.

"There was a lot of guns around and a lot of armed men and ambulance and Fire Service, it was all go."

Photo: GOOGLE MAPS

The incident took place in a building which looks like a mechanic's premises, although Ms Simmonds believed people lived there.

The gun shots were frightening, she said.

"We felt okay, we were safe . . . as soon as they raided the place the gun shots went off and then there was just silence after that pretty much."

There was a "huge" number of police and Armed Offenders Squad members present, she said.

"There was three big car loads and then we had the paddywagon turn up and then there was cops everywhere."

Last September, the Police Association warned that police officers were increasingly having to deal with armed and dangerous offenders.

The warning came after police shot a man dead in Upper Hutt, after he fired a rifle in a McDonalds restaurant and then at officers.

Police fatally shot a man in an Auckland park in August last year, and also killed a 57-year-old man in Paeroa last month.