Femme Fatale: Shooting at Auckland brothel adds to its troubled history

It's been described as the biggest brothel in Auckland, and a string of violent and drug related incidents inside and outside its doors have led to Femme Fatale garnering a notorious reputation.

In the latest incident at the central city nightspot, a person was left with critical injuries after being shot at the Wellesley St West-based strip club last night.

A witness in a nearby apartment heard a loud bang just after 11pm and emerged on to his balcony to see police and up to three ambulance cars rush to the scene below.

Femme Fatale didn't want to comment when contacted by the Herald, but police confirmed they were investigating a "serious firearms incident" at the club.

A person with gunshot-related injuries was today in critical but stable condition at Auckland City Hospital.

Central Auckland brothel Femme Fatale. File photo / Jason Oxenham

The incident, which saw two police officers stationed outside the club this morning as investigators examined the scene, comes a year after an Auckland man was viciously punched outside Femme Fatale - an attack for which no one has yet been held to account.

The man was looking for a taxi in the early hours of the morning after socialising with friends at SkyCity when he stopped outside the club, a nondescript steel and brick facade blended into the surrounding office blocks and apartments.

From behind, he was punched twice in the head by a man, with a woman on his arm, who had just left Femme Fatale, the victim told the Herald in February.

One punch split his lip right through and nearly cost him a tooth, and he spent several hours bouncing between private and public health providers before a plastic surgeon stitched his lip.

Staff at Femme Fatale helped the man after his assailant "just walked off", but in February the 40-year-old told the Herald he still had no idea who hit him or why as the case still hadn't been assigned to a police officer after nine months, an action for which an Independent Police Conduct Authority adviser later apologised.

After the assault, Femme Fatale security staff told him the man was a gang member and sometimes carried a firearm, the victim alleged to the Herald.

This man was badly hurt when he was punched twice in an unprovoked attack outside Femme Fatale in April last year. Photo / Dean Purcell

However, an unnamed manager for the brothel told the Herald in February it didn't allow in patched gang members or firearms, and the club was "the only gentlemen's club using metal detectors" to scan all customers.

"This appears to be a random incident that happened outside of our premises … security staff and management don't know [the] identity of [the] random man."

Other incidents at the club included two people being rushed to Auckland City Hospital from there in 2016, after they ingested the class B drug GHB.

A woman was left in a critical condition and a man in a serious condition after the incident.

And in 2012, a fire in the multi-storey building's laundry saw dozens of patrons and sex workers stream into Wellesley St in the early hours of the morning.

Emergency services rushed to the scene after a person was shot at Femme Fatale brothel in central Auckland. Photo / Rahul Bhattarai

A pair of Aucklanders "enjoying a big night out" with old school friends were caught up in the top floor mayhem and told the Herald at the time how sex workers and their clients were forced to run through thick smoke to get to the building's stairwells.

One client had to be rescued from a room, needing hospital treatment, along with a sex worker.

Femme Fatale was contacted for comment this afternoon on the history of incidents connected to the club, but is yet to respond.