Police search for man missing in Hokitika river

Saturday, 25 January 2020

Police are searching for a man who didn't return from the Hokitika River. (File photo)

Police have found no sign of a man who went missing in the Hokitika River on the South Island's West Coast on Saturday afternoon.

A police spokesman said they had received a report around 12:50pm of a 23-year-old man that failed to surface from the river in Kokatahi, near Whitecombe Valley Road.

A search for the man was carried out until dark, but without any success.

Police could not immediately provide any more detail on the circumstances of the incident.

**READ MORE:

Officers at the Hokitika River on the West Coast in September 2019 shortly after Emily Branje went missing after falling in the river.

* Body of girl found near mouth of West Coast river

* Hokitika River takes Christchurch family's 'precious' only child after pair is swept away

* Search for girl swept away in river to continue through the night**

The search for the man is expected to resume at daylight on Sunday morning.

Stuff reported in September last year the body of 9-year-old Christchurch girl Emily Branje was found two days after she fell in the Hokitika River and was swept out to sea.

She had been spending school holidays with extended family in Hokitika when the incident happened.