The victim of an alleged attack in a Mount Maunganui mall on Friday is now stable after being taken to hospital in a serious condition, police say today.

Onlookers rushed to help as the victim was seen lying on the ground holding her stomach with “lots of blood around her”.

A 16-year-old girl was taken into custody shortly after the incident at Countdown supermarket inside Bayfair Shopping Centre, Arataki on Friday afternoon.

Police say she has now been charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and is due to appear in Tauranga District Court next week.

Witnesses believe the victim was stabbed, with one onlooker saying they saw two teenagers running away from the Countdown store.

A worker at a hair salon told SunLive of the moments after the incident as customers left Countdown and spilled into the mall.

“We were locked in the salon – I work there – my client came in saying she heard someone drop behind her in the supermarket and thought someone had fallen over,” the worker told SunLive today.

“She says she turned to look and saw, about a metre away from her, a girl on the ground clutching her stomach with lots of blood around her.”

The customer says bystanders helped the victim, while the woman left the supermarket with all the other customers.

Police swarmed Bayfair Shopping Centre on Friday night responding to the incident. Photo: Supplied.

Afterwards, supermarket staff used trolleys to barricade the store entrance, while a group of girls could be seen sitting on a couch crying, the worker says.

A second store owner says they saw two teenage girls run out of Countdown heading towards Bayfair’s 'Foodcourt & Dine' area.

“They were aged about 15 or 16, two teenage girls, they were wearing skirts, maybe a school uniform, with jumpers.

“It was very fast. We just thought it was someone after school running off to catch a bus or something,” says the store owner.

“Then we saw everyone gathering at Countdown. We thought something was going wrong.

“Then ambulance and cops came in with guns. The police started clearing Countdown out. We saw someone in Countdown on the floor with blood. You could see blood.

“Everything happened so fast.”

Aman Singh, manager of The Coffee Club Bayfair, says police and ambulance staff were quick to get to the scene.

“We were busy working, it was very casual with people relaxed. Then at about 4.30pm we heard one girl screaming and a second girl was running past,” he told SunLive.

He says he saw another person chasing the girl who was running past.

Countdown staff called authorities, he says, and ambulance and police came within five minutes.

Security increased at Bayfair

Bayfair Shopping Centre manager Steve Ellingford called Friday’s events “an isolated incident”.

Countdown at the Bayfair Shopping Centre reopened at 9am on Saturday morning. Photo: Rosalie Liddle Crawford.

The centre had, however, taken additional measures to increase safety.

“We have put on additional security over the next two days,” says Steve.

“We continue to assist police with their investigation.”

A spokeswoman for the centre says it is open today “and all retailers have resumed normal operations”.

Community calls for greater police presence

Michael O’Neill, president of the Mount Maunganui Ratepayers, Residents and Retailers Association, says the first response to the alleged attack needed to be a police one.

“So far there have been a few issues around Arataki and in particular with youth,” says Michael.

“Obviously, there’s always concern with any form of violence, which seems to be on the increase.”

He believes rising crime is a nationwide problem and wants to see a broader approach to tackling it that takes into account how young people use social media and what they see on it.

‘Unacceptable’ - Prime Minister Christopher Luxon

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this morning expressed sympathy for the victim of the alleged attack.

”Our thoughts go out to the people...that’s just unacceptable.”

He says he believes his Government had done incredibly well in starting its term by progressing a law and order agenda.

Luxon conceded his team needs to make sure they lower the crime rate across the country.

”I’m frustrated about it, I know the public is frustrated about it,” he says of violent crime.

“We’ve been working incredibly hard to get the legislative system changes in place and support, we need to give the police more tools to be able to deal with it.”