Body recovered from car in river

Police this afternoon recovered the body of a 47-year-old Greymouth woman from the Buller River after her disappearance on Sunday night.

The woman was found dead inside her four-wheel-drive Suzuki, which police pulled from the river by crane about 1pm today.

The woman had been reported missing to police about 1.30am on Monday after she failed to return to Greymouth from Nelson.

Senior Constable Hamish Blanch said police had found the vehicle submerged in the Buller River just metres from where they had been searching near the Buller Gorge swingbridge, 16km south of Murchison.

It appeared the vehicle had left State Highway 6, cutting a swathe through the bush, before plunging into the river.

The woman's name has not yet been released.

- NZPA