A teenager was bitten by a police dog and arrested after crashing an allegedly stolen car into a tree in Dunedin.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said officers observed a vehicle travelling along Melbourne St at 4.45am yesterday.
Young people were inside the vehicle and it then crashed into a tree on the corner of the intersection of Wilson Ave and Surrey St in the suburb of St Clair.
Two youths fled, one of them a 16-year-old who was tracked by a police dog and bitten.
The teen was arrested and found with drugs in his possession, along with an ignition barrel and some vice grips. The car turned out to be stolen, Snr Sgt Bond said.
The teen was charged with unlawfully getting into a motor vehicle, possession of instruments for conversion, unlawful interference with a motor vehicle, possession of cannabis and escaping police custody.
Police were following positive lines of inquiry to find the driver, Snr Sgt Bond said.
