Source: Radio New Zealand
The police Eagle helicopter crew and Coastguard are searching for a missing jet skier off Waikato (file photo). RNZ / Dom Thomas
The search for a jet skier missing in the water for more than 24 hours off Port Waikato has ended for a second night.
Emergency services responded to reports of three people in distress in the sea about 6:30pm last night, near the sandbar at the Waikato River mouth.
On Thursday two people, including a five year old child were rescued at the river mouth with help from the police Eagle helicopter. But searchers continued to scour the water on Friday, searching for a third person.
The trio were jet skiing near the notoriously dangerous sand bar at the river’s mouth on Christmas Day when they got into trouble.
Police said they responded to a report about the incident about 6:30pm on Thursday. The Police Eagle helicopter crew helped surf lifesavers to rescue two people, but the third had not yet been found.
Surf Life Saving NZ (SLSNZ) said on Christmas Day lifeguards from Sunset Beach and Kariaotahi had responded to the incident, with patrol lifeguards and search and rescue squads, using inflatable rescue boats and rescue water craft. The Northern Rescue helicopter had also helped search.
Lifeguards had been able to pull a five-year-old child from the water, and had kept searching until it became too dark to continue, at about 8pm on Thursday.
The remaining missing person was a male, SLSNZ said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
