Missing girl’s body found

The body of a 9-year-old Christchurch girl who was swept away in the Hokitika River was found yesterday. Emily Branje and a 69-year-old man, understood to be her stepgranddad, fell into the water at the river mouth on Thursday morning, triggering a large search involving police Search and Rescue (SAR), Coastguard, LandSAR, Maritime NZ, local surf rescue and a helicopter crew. Police were alerted at about 8:30am yesterday after a body was found near the mouth of the Grey River, near Cobden, on the West Coast.