Police said a series of incidents in the area were believed to be gang-related.

Stuart Stobie was ‘tragically taken in a hunting accident’.

Five people have been injured, one critically, after a car mounted the footpath by the University of Auckland.

Witnesses to the crash, which was reported just after midday (10am AEST), said the car was travelling down Symonds Street when the driver hit the curb, hitting two people and forcing students to leap out of the way.

Police said drugs or alcohol might have been a factor in the crash.

READ MORE: Teal MP Monique Ryan's husband responds after tearing down sign backing Liberal candidate

One person was transported to hospital in a critical condition and four others suffered moderate to minor injuries, police said. Another patient, in a minor condition, was treated at the scene.

Students and witnesses to the crash, Luka and Mateen, said the car was travelling down Symonds St, outside the university, when the driver lost control.

"[The driver] then hit the curb, came off the road and hit the tree," Mateen said.

Luka said around 15 students had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.

READ MORE: Young travellers warned of methanol poisoning in safety campaign

Stephen Dimapilis, another student who witnessed the crash, told RNZ he saw the car "swerving" before it flew onto the pavement.

"I see a car coming out of control, and then he crashed into two people and one person was under the car, and the other person – I saw him literally flying. So I was just speechless, I didn't know what to think of."

Dimapilis said the car appeared to be driving above the road's 40kph speed limit.

Symonds Street was closed from Wellesley St to Grafton Rd while police worked at thescene.

At 2.29pm (12.29pm AEST), Auckland Transport issued an alert to passengers saying services were returning to normal after earlier disruption.

"An earlier emergency services incident, that occurred on Symonds St, Auckland CBD, between Grafton Rd and Wellesley St East has now been resolved and services are returning to normal," AT said.

This article originally appeared on Stuff and is republished here with permission.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

More than 4000 drivers have been surveyed to find out which countries have the best service stations.

DiscoverCars.com asked the tourist drivers to review their experience in the countries they travelled to and give a ranking from 1 to 10.

Click through to find out how Australia scored and which country took out the top spot.

The work from home debate has transformed into a hot federal election issue in Australia after the Coalition flagged plans to mirror Trump's tough stance on forcing public workers back into the office.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday championed the right to work from home and offer worker flexibility after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton suggested all public servants should be in the office full time.

Albanese also backed Labor-led research which found the average worker will be $5000 more out of pocket if they are made to commute to an office five days a week.

READ MORE: CCTV released after man shot in Melbourne

If public sector employees – of which there are 365,400 working in federal government – can no longer work from home, who does this impact?

According to analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), one in three workers will be negatively affected by a blanket return to office order.

More than 600,000 Australians work from home nationally in order to save money or avoid a commute, the ABS data shows.

If a large chunk of this widespread demographic gets back on the roads every morning and afternoon, traffic congestion will impact everyone, the ACTU said.

Meanwhile, 320,000 of these workers say they need remote work for care responsibilities.

Another one million Australian workers also report working from home in order to "catch up" on work after hours.

The ACTU said these workers will be forced to stay later at the office and will lose their "right to disconnect".

READ MORE: Pope Francis back home after five-week hospital stay for life-threatening double pneumonia

"Working people in our outer suburbs face some of the longest and most expensive commutes," said ACTU president Michele O'Neil.

"Forcing hundreds of thousands of workers back on the roads will mean less time with kids and more time in traffic."

O'Neil said an order like Dutton's proposal would "kill productivity" and disadvantage women.

"This would be an instant productivity killer, because flexible work has pushed women's workforce participation to record highs, as one million women joined the workforce in the last four years," O'Neil added.

READ MORE: Man hit with pole outside shop in Melbourne

Albanese yesterday said the $5000 figure was an average estimate which could be much higher for those living in capital cities such as Sydney or Melbourne.

"It makes an enormous difference… in terms of their hip pocket," he said.

Following a mixed reaction from Dutton's pre-election work from home policy, the opposition leader later softened his approach and said he wanted to see remote work return to "pre-COVID levels" when around 20 per cent of the workforce worked from home.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

A rare Bible that was donated to a charity shop in the UK has sold for a staggering £56,000 ($115,000) at auction.

The book, penned between 1815 and 1822, was the first written in Chinese, and was left at an Oxfam shop in the town of Chelmsford, about 70km north-east of central London.

Volunteers thought it was valuable and the charity put it up for auction, believing it could fetch about £800.

READ MORE: Pope Francis back home after five-week hospital stay for life-threatening double pneumonia

But shop manager Nick Reeves said charity workers were "absolutely speechless" when the text went for £56,280.

"We were sat watching the bidding and just seeing it go up and up. When it finally ended, I was in complete shock. We were absolutely speechless.

"It's amazing to think that a donation from our shop could help raise that much money Oxfam. It's just wonderful."

The Bible, translated by John Lassar and Joshua Marshman, was among 23 other books donated to various Oxfam shops which were at auction last week. Their sale raised more than £105,000, which will go towards tackling poverty and inequality around the world.

They included a first edition of Charles Dickens' famous novella A Christmas Carol for £16,640, while the initial English translation of Karl Marx' Manifesto of the Community Party went for £7040.

Bonham's books and manuscripts specialist Lorenza Gay said experts were stunned by the sale of the Bible.

"The Lassar and Marshman Chinese translation of the Bible was an exceedingly rare item, which we could not trace at auction previously.

"We hoped it would exceed the estimate, but it definitely surprised us with the final price achieved. This remarkable outcome is great news for the important work Oxfam does around the world."

A rescue mission is underway to save four people stranded in outback South Australia this morning.

The group left Oodnadatta at 4pm on Friday, travelling north.

They were believed to be heading to Finke in the Northern Territory, but concerns were raised when they failed to arrive.

READ MORE: Albanese announces pledge to fully fund every public school in Australia

Police made contact with the group just after 4pm yesterday.

It's believed their car suffered mechanical issues.

Authorities have provided the group with supplies, including food and a telephone.

Police maintained contact with the group overnight, with plans to rescue them at the earliest opportunity this morning.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Weather forecasters are warning a fresh wave of record-breaking rain and storms will continue to lash parts of inland Australia this week, with the risk of road links being cut.

Queensland's interior will feel the brunt of the extreme conditions caused by a moisture-filled monsoonal trough over the coming days, reports Weatherzone.

Last week, flooding in the state's far west, northern South Australia and the Northern Territory's south caused transport links to be severed and isolated communities cut off.

READ MORE: CCTV released after man shot in Melbourne

The deluge caused seasonal rainfall records to be smashed in some parts.

The outback Queensland town of Birdsville experienced its heaviest rainfall in five years, with more than 70mm falling in 24 hours, twice the monthly average.

Other communities recorded the biggest falls for two years: Coober Pedy in SA had 30mm in 24 hours, three times the monthly average, while 90mm in the same period, one-and-a-half times the monthly average, fell on Urandangi in Queensland.

The extreme weather is now shifting to inland Queensland. The Bureau of Meteorology today issued a severe thunderstorm warning for north-western inland parts of the state.

"Severe thunderstorms are likely to produce heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding in the warning area over the next several hours. Locations which may be affected include Camooweal, Selwyn and Mckinlay."

READ MORE: Deadly disease overtakes COVID-19 as leading global infectious killer

https://twitter.com/BOM_Qld/status/1903703362249572837?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

With the potential for a few hundred millimetres of rain across a large region, residents are being warned some isolated communities may be cut off.

Long-term impacts of the downpour will be felt in the Channel Country, which largely encompasses outback Queensland. The heavy rains are expected to fill Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre for the next few months in a boon for wildlife.

But with kangaroos and emus being attracted to water on flooded roads, drivers are being urged to take extra care.

Meanwhile, a rescue operation will begin today in South Australia's far north to free three adults and a child stranded in flood waters.

The group of three adults and a six-year-old child were last seen travelling from Finke last Friday towards the NT before they made contact with authorities yesterday.

Food supplies were dropped to them by aircraft but they are still trapped by flood waters.

A weak and frail Pope Francis has returned home to the Vatican from the hospital after surviving a five-week, life-threatening bout of pneumonia, making a surprise stop at his favourite basilica on the way home before beginning two months of prescribed rest and recovery.

The motorcade carrying the 88-year-old pope entered the Perugino gate into Vatican City on Sunday morning (Sunday night AEDT), and Francis was seen in the front passenger seat wearing nasal tubes to give him supplemental oxygen.

During the trip home from Gemelli hospital, Francis took a slight detour to bring him to the St Mary Major basilica, where his favourite icon of the Madonna is located and where he always goes to pray after a foreign visit. Francis didn't get out of the car, but handed a bouquet of flowers to the cardinal to place in front of the Salus populi Romani icon, a Byzantine-style painting on wood that is revered by Romans.

READ MORE: Grim milestone as 50,000 killed in war with no end in sight

Before leaving the hospital, Francis gave a thumbs up and acknowledged the crowd after he was wheeled out onto the balcony overlooking the main entry. Hundreds of people had gathered on a brilliant Sunday morning to say goodbye.

"I see this woman with the yellow flowers. Brava!" a tired and bloated-looking Francis said. He gave a weak sign of the cross before being wheeled back inside.

Chants of "Viva il papa!" and "Papa Francesco" erupted from the crowd, which included patients who had been wheeled outside just to catch his brief appearance.

Doctors, who announced his planned release at a Saturday evening (early Sunday AEDT) news conference, said he needs two months of rest and convalescence, during which he should refrain from meeting with big groups of people or exerting himself. But they said eventually he should be able to resume all his normal activities.

His return home, after the longest hospitalisation of his 12-year papacy and the second-longest in recent papal history, brought tangible relief to the Vatican and Catholic faithful who have been anxiously following 38 days of medical ups and downs and wondering if Francis would make it.

"Today I feel a great joy," said Dr Rossella Russomando, a doctor from Salerno who didn't treat Francis but was at Gemelli on Sunday.

"It is the demonstration that all our prayers, all the rosary prayers from all over the world, brought this grace."

Pope is happy to go home

At the Vatican on Sunday, pilgrims flocked as they have all year to St Peter's Basilica to participate in the 2025 Holy Year. They swarmed St Peter's Square and progressed through the Holy Door in groups, while big TV screens in the square were turned on to broadcast Francis' hospital greeting live.

No special arrangements have been made at the Domus Santa Marta, the Vatican hotel next to the basilica where Francis lives in a two-room suite on the second floor. Francis will have access to supplemental oxygen and 24-hour medical care as needed, though his personal physician, Dr Luigi Carbone, said he hoped Francis would progressively need less and less assistance breathing as his lungs recover.

While the pneumonia infection has been successfully treated, Francis will continue to take oral medication for quite some time to treat the fungal infection in his lungs and continue his respiratory and physical physiotherapy.

"For three or four days he's been asking when he can go home, so he's very happy," Carbone said.

Two life-threatening crises

The Argentine pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was admitted to Gemelli on February 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened.

Doctors first diagnosed a complex bacterial, viral and fungal respiratory tract infection and soon thereafter, pneumonia in both lungs. Blood tests showed signs of anemia, low blood platelets and the onset of kidney failure, all of which later resolved after two blood transfusions.

The most serious setbacks began on February 28, when Francis experienced an acute coughing fit and inhaled vomit, requiring the use of a noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask to help him breathe. He suffered two more respiratory crises a few days later, which required doctors to manually aspirate "copious" amounts of mucus from his lungs, at which point he began sleeping with the ventilation mask at night to help his lungs clear the accumulation of fluids.

He was never intubated and at no point lost consciousness. Doctors reported he always remained alert and cooperative, though they say he has probably lost a bit of weight given a natural loss of appetite.

"Unfortunately yes, there was a moment when many were saying that he might not make it. And it was painful for us," said Mario Balsamo, the owner of coffee shop in front of Gemelli.

"Instead, today with the discharge, we are very happy that he is well and we hope he will recover soon and will recover his strength."

'I'm still alive!'

Dr Sergio Alfieri, the medical and surgical chief at Gemelli who coordinated Francis' medical team, stressed that not all patients who develop such a severe case of double pneumonia survive, much less are released from the hospital. He said Francis' life was at risk twice, during the two acute respiratory crises, and that the pope at the time understandably lost his typical good sense of humour.

"But one morning we went to listen to his lungs and we asked him how he was doing. When he replied, 'I'm still alive,' we knew he was OK and had gotten his good humor back," he said.

Alfieri confirmed that Francis was still having trouble speaking due to the damage to his lungs and respiratory muscles. But he said such problems were normal, especially in older patients, and predicted his voice would eventually return to normal.

No confirmed appointments for now

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, declined to confirm any upcoming events, including a scheduled audience on April 8 with King Charles III or Francis' participation in Easter services at the end of the month. But Carbone said he hoped Francis might be well enough to travel to Turkey at the end of May to participate in an important ecumenical anniversary.

Francis is also returning to the Vatican in the throes of a Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration scheduled to draw more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome this year. The pope has already missed several Jubilee audiences and will presumably miss several more, but Vatican officials say his absence hasn't significantly impacted the numbers of expected pilgrims arriving.

Only St John Paul II recorded a longer hospitalisation in 1981, when he spent 55 days at Gemelli for minor surgery and treatment of an infection.

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

A man is fighting for life after a fire tore through his motel room in Brisbane's south.

At 8am today, the Moorooka Motel in south Brisbane burst into flames in what police have labelled a suspicious fire.

Hero residents rushed into the complex, waking those in neighbouring units, after holidaymakers said smoke alarms failed.

READ MORE: Opposition pledges support for 'desperate act' $150 off power bills

Residents rushed out of the building as emergency services moved in to extinguish the blaze.

Emergency crews were confronted with a well developed fire on the lower level with people reported missing.

Everyone in the complex was accounted for a short time later including Levi Clamp, 32, who managed to escape his burning room but not without significant burns.

READ MORE: Man arrested after Sydney father found dead on rural property

Paramedics worked desperately to save his life today, performing CPR before rushing him to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

"It was really concerning, we were very scared and worried for them and just praying that they're gonna be okay," witness Fairuz Khan told 9News.

Hero neighbour Alain Ferre helped others flee the inferno, racing into the smoke armed with a fire hydrant.

"My son and my partner and I are really grateful because if he hadn't come knocking we wouldn't have known any better," Deb Beasley said, referring to Ferre. 

The blaze was contained in a matter of minutes, but in a short time it packed a punch, though it could have been so much worse.

Those staying at the motel claimed the smoke alarms didn't sound.

"The one thing I always ensure the fire message safety gets across is always ensure you have working smoke alarms in your premise because you just don't know what's going to happen or when it's going to happen," Chris Peirson from the Queensland Fire Department said.

Clamp remained in a critical but stable condition tonight after undergoing surgery.

A crime scene remained in place at the hotel as police investigated the fire.