One person is dead after a car crashed into a parked vehicle outside a Mount Maunganui mall. 

Police said the collision happened on Girven Rd, which runs alongside the Bayfair Shopping Centre, shortly before 5.50pm on Thursday. 

“The sole occupant of the vehicle died at the scene,” a spokesperson said.

Hato Hone St John sent an ambulance, a critical care unit and a local operations manager to the scene, while fire crews from Mount Maunganui and Tauranga also attended.

Police said inquiries into the circumstances of the crash were ongoing.