Source: Radio New Zealand
A person being winched at of the Whiritoa blowhole in Coromandel. Supplied / Police
Emergency crews already rescuing two people have had to rescue a third who was taking photos of the ordeal.
Police were called about 8.30am to the Whiritoa blowhole in Coromandel where the first two people got caught by the incoming tide and big surf.
One of them had a suspected broken leg.
But while that person was being winched out of the blowhole, another man taking photos from the rocks got washed into the surf.
“While we were winching the injured man out of the blowhole we heard about someone else who was watching the rescue,” Sergeant Bradley York said.
“He’d been taking photos from rocks nearby then been washed off into the surf,” he said.
“We had to divert away from the initial rescue, and shift to the more urgent situation where he was in the sea.
Rescue crews went back to the first scene to rescue the remaining man after winching the bystander from the water.
Police, Fire and Emergency, Surf Life Saving and the Auckland rescue helicopter were all involved.
“This was a good reminder to members of the public to exercise caution near the sea as conditions can change rapidly,” York said.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
