Person dies after water incident

A man found unresponsive in the water near Moturiki Island on Saturday has died.

Police confirmed emergency services responded to an incident at 1.50pm and despite first aid being provided at the scene, the man was unable to be revived.

Police were not able to provide any additional information yesterday.

Moturiki Island, sometimes known as Leisure Island, is located off Mount Maunganui’s main beach. The island is connected to Main Beach by a man-made land bridge.

Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service confirmed the person who died was a male but would not elaborate on what had happened other than saying it was “an accident”.

“A number of senior lifeguards were involved in [Saturday]’s incident, along with a number of younger lifeguards who were a bit distressed by the situation — it was quite traumatic,” said Mount Maunganui Lifeguard Service chairman Jamie Troughton.

“It’s not the way we wanted to start the summer.”

Troughton also recognised the efforts of neighbouring life saving clubs Omanu and Pa¯ pa¯ moa, who were also involved.

Renee Nichols was walking down Maunganui Beach in the afternoon when she said she saw lifeguards taking an emergency raft into the waters, returning with what appeared to be a man who was unconscious.

She said lifeguards hauled the man on to the beach and did CPR until police came running along to assist. Two ambulance units and the Westpac helicopter also arrived.

Nicols said family members appeared to be around at the time and were visibly distressed.

“It was really distressing — real as. I was pretty shocked, we weren’t sure what was happening,” she said.

“The waves were heavy. There were lots of rips on the beach today as well — like four or five signs saying where the rips were.”

It comes after the Bay of Plenty Times reported last month there have been seven preventable drowning fatalities in the Bay of Plenty this year, while there was eight last year, according to Water Safety New Zealand.