Child dies after incident at Mangamate Waterfall in Bay of Plenty

8:00 pm on 5 January 2022

A child has died after an incident at a waterfall in remote Bay of Plenty today.

Close up of a St John ambulance on a residential street.

(file image) Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly

Emergency services were called to Mangamate Waterfall, inland from Minginui in Te Urewera, just before 2.45pm.

One helicopter and three ambulances attended.

Attempts were made to resuscitate the child, but they died at the scene.

Police said they were making inquiries on behalf of the coroner.

The closet major settlement to Mangamate is Rotorua, which is just over an hour away.

Twenty-eight people have now died in water incidents across New Zealand this summer.

This has passed the 25 water-related deaths recorded for each of the past two summers.

There are still two months to go of summer.

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