Auckland mayor Wayne Brown appeared to be pulled away from a testy media stand-up on the city's flooding this afternoon.
The city's deputy mayor, Desley Simpson, could be seen gesturing to Brown to leave the podium as he continued to speak to media even though Prime Minister Chris Hipkins had finished speaking and walked away.
Simpson then appeared to grab his arm and lead him away.
The media conference, held at a West Auckland fire station, saw reporters grill Brown about accusations that his office took too long to declare a state of emergency.
"I followed the advice of the professionals, I ensured that all of our staff were deployed in the most successful and most efficient manner," the mayor said.
"It took a lot of concentration, it happened quickly, and the response was way quicker than people acknowledged."
Brown spoke alongside Hipkins, Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty, and Transport Minister Michael Wood.
Full video: Hipkins and Brown speak after surveying Auckland floods
Asked if he had confidence in Auckland's local leadership, PM Chris Hipkins said, "that's not a question for me."
Dunedin's former mayor Aaron Hawkins reacted to the interaction on Twitter.
"Wait did Desley Simpson just *drag the mayor away* from his angry Q&A? This is extraordinary," he wrote.
Mayor under fire for response
Brown defended his response to the flooding during the media conference and earlier in an interview with RNZ. The mayor has been accused of being slow to declare a state of emergency in Auckland last night.
"The state of emergency is a prescribed process. It's quite formal. I had to wait until I had the official request from the emergency management centre," he said.
"When the police and Fire and Emergency announced that they were being overwhelmed, that's when they recommended I call a state of emergency. I was following the recommendations of the professionals."
National Party leader Christopher Luxon and several Auckland councillors called for the mayor to declare an emergency last night - before he did so publicly.
"The decisions are guided from the professional experts in the field - rather than just from Twitter," the mayor said on RNZ.
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