Person has died after water-related incident at Tāwharanui Peninsula

Sunday, 22 January 2023

A person has died after a “water-related” incident at Anchor Bay, Tāwharanui Peninsula.

Emergency services were notified of the incident north of Auckland shortly before 2pm on Sunday.

Medical assistance was provided, but the person had died, police said in a statement.

The death would be referred to the coroner.

It comes after five drowning fatalities in three days across the Auckland region, prompting surf livesavers to call for people to swim at lifeguarded beaches during patrol hours.

Two people drowned at unpatrolled beaches on Friday: one at Narrow Neck Beach on Auckland’s North Shore, and another at Big Manly Beach on the Whangaparāoa Peninsula.

On Saturday, one person died at Takapuna. Two people died at North Piha on Saturday evening, despite United North Piha lifeguards’ attempts to rescue them after patrol had ended for the day.

Saturday also saw lifeguards at Raglan perform two mass rescues of 13 and 16 people, respectively, with a total of 32 rescues across the day.