A 71-year-old is in hospital after suffering a serious attack from a man smashing shop windows in central Dunedin, police say.
Constable Nick Turner said officers responded to reports of an assault in George St about 2am today.
It's alleged a 31-year-old man smashed and damaged a number of shop windows.
A 71-year-old man passing by tried to speak with him and was assaulted, police said.
Officers arrived and found the victim, who was taken to Dunedin Hospital by ambulance with serious injuries. He is in a stable condition.
A 31-year-old Dunedin man has been charged with intent to injure and four charges of intentional damage, and was expected to appear in the District Court today.
Jeweller Brent Weatherall said the attack happened in front of his store and was caught on CCTV.
The footage indicated the attack happened about 2am and was preceded by a window smashing spree that lasted for about half an hour, he said.
Mr Weatherall said his windows were not broken but staff arrived to find blood splattered on the doorstep after the "horrific" attack.
‘‘I think it's an extremely sad state of affairs that seems to be more of a common occurrence these days."
The footage showed the victim had been hit by an object before he fell to the ground and the assault continued while he was lying in the street, Mr Weatherall said.
‘‘It's not nice to see at all ... I just hope the individual is going to be OK."
He was pleased the alleged attacker had been caught.
A St John spokeswoman said staff were called to George St about 2.30am and an ambulance took one patient to hospital in a serious condition.
