Armed police responding to the report of a person with a gun at Mount Maunganui ended up seizing a toy.

Police were called to a carpark near the beach at around 7.10am on Saturday after a person saw “someone in a car with what appeared to be a gun on their lap”, police said.

“Armed police responded, as is usual practice when there might be a firearm involved.

“Fortunately, the gun was found to be a toy, and it was seized and destroyed.”

A member of the public walking along the boardwalk on Marine Parade at Mount Main Beach contacted SunLive after seeing the armed police.

“There were five police cars and heaps of officers pulling a car over,” said the SunLive reader, who wished to remain anonymous.

“And then a man was told to exit the car while police had their guns drawn.”

Last year a man with a toy gun prompted a brief lockdown of Tauranga Hospital, and in 2022 armed police were called to Pāpāmoa over what turned out to be an imitation firearm.