UPDATED 9.51AM: The Armed Offenders Squad have shot a man in a Whanganui suburb, after he pointed a firearm at them this evening.

Armed police descended on Mitchell Street in Aramoho around seven.

They were attending a family violence incident.

Police say the man then aimed a firearm at them, so a member of the Armed Offenders Squad shot him.

The man was rushed to the emergency department at Whanganui Hospital with serious injuries.

A woman who lives nearby said the whole incident took just under an hour.

Residents weren’t allowed outside while it happened and the man who was shot was on someone’s property.