Where is it bro?: Alex Perron (left) and Devon Briggs from Cosmic at Cuba Mall, Wellington's Bucket Fountain, which is missing a bucket.

A big yellow bucket has been stolen from Wellington's landmark Bucket Fountain.

The bucket – the largest and lowest of the five yellow buckets on the Cuba Mall fountain – went missing late on Sunday night, Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said.

"It is safe to say, we want our bucket back. It's large and yellow and made of fibreglass."

While there were no clear leads on the bucket thief, "exuberant" students new to town for the university year were the obvious suspects.

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It was last seen outside a chemist further up Cuba Mall.

The council was considering contacting police about the theft as well as looking at security footage from the mall taken on Sunday night.

But it would be better if it was "just, say, left back at the scene of the crime", MacLean said.

Over the past few decades the fountain had proved an "irresistible magnet" for "people just getting used to the big smoke".

A local woman said she was in the mall about 8.15pm on Sunday when she saw two young men and a woman in their early 20s.

"I heard one, the girl, saying to one of the guys 'You're going to get killed for this'."

She said the man then "took off" and hid when another member of the public took photos of the group.

Devon Briggs, from the Cosmic shop beside the fountain, said he had seen many antics on it, from people climbing it to swimming in the water at the bottom.

He had seen coins glued to the bottom when the water was out, and road cones placed on the fountain's peak.

But he had never known a bucket to be stolen.

His co-worker, Alex Perron, did not notice the missing bucket when he arrived at work on Monday.

"A council guy emptied the fountain and asked me, 'Have you seen a bucket?' I had no response."

Two days after the brazen theft, the missing bucket was causing problems.

Pupils from Evans Bay Intermediate School were sent out on Tuesday on an "Amazing Race Around Wellington".

One of the questions asked was, what percentage of the buckets were yellow.

Parent Michelle Boynton, who was helping on the outing, said the theft was annoying, not only because it made the question difficult.

"It's such an iconic thing. Why would someone steal it?"