A person is dead and seven injured following a caravan and house fire at Invercargill early today.

The gas bottle explosion that rocked central Invercargill yesterday, seriously injuring the man transporting it in his ute, is extremely rare and will take some investigating to find out why it blew up, fire experts say.

Investigators are picking through shards of glass and twisted metal to work out why a gas bottle exploded in Invercargill today, injuring two people

Firefighters are dampening down hot spots after a block of shops caught fire in Invercargill this morning.

Police are looking for a man who exposed himself to two teenage girls as they walked through an Invercargill park yesterday.

A suspended school principal has failed in her bid to be reinstated in time to farewell children at their last school assembly of the year.

A 78-year-old woman and 76-year-old man are among 17 people, most with connections to the Invercargill-based Road Knights motorcycle gang, charged after a police swoop on 14 properties yesterday.

The men involved with a multimillion-dollar cannabis-growing ring in the South Island wore balaclavas and carried firearms while harvesting hundreds of plants, a judge said in the High Court in Invercargill.

Police have charged a woman with attempted murder after a 3-week-old baby was critically injured in Invercargill last week.

The hospital care received by an Invercargill mother just a day before her baby girl suffered critical injuries is under review.

The 3-week-old baby left fighting for its life after a violent incident at her Invercargill home was so badly injured that a policeman had to drive the ambulance to hospital.

A 3-week-old baby left fighting for its life after a violent incident in Invercargill this morning has been transferred to Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland.

The taxi driver racially abused in an alarming outburst caught on camera has returned to work, but the unsavoury incident has persuaded him to leave the industry.

A Pakistan-born taxi driver was subjected to a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse - and it's all been caught on camera.

A "neighbourly dispute" involving a gun sparked a callout for members of the Armed Offenders Squad in Invercargill.

An alarming increase in thieves breaking car windows in broad daylight to steal valuables has sparked a warning from police that iPods and laptops left on seats are an "open invitation".

The trial of a Bluff woman who has denied charges laid after the sinking of her fishing boat Easy Rider last year will probably take one week.

An Invercargill high school has lost two new classrooms and a vehicle, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, in a large fire today.