Greymouth kayak incident: Search enters fourth day for person swept out to sea

A kayak was found washed up near Blaketown, Greymouth, shortly after a person was reported to have been swept out to sea in the area.

The search for a person swept out to sea in Greymouth is set to continue into a fourth day.

Efforts to find the person yesterday, which included aerial searches of the shoreline between Charleston and Ross, were hampered by rough sea conditions, said Senior Sergeant Mark Kirkwood.

Emergency services received a report of a person being swept out to sea in the Greytown suburb of Blaketown around 6pm on Saturday.

A kayak was found washed up near the suburb shortly after around 7.30pm.

Inquiries to identify the person and whether the kayak was linked to them remained ongoing, said Kirkwood.

Emergency services, including police, Search and Rescue, Kotuku Surf Life Saving, the Greymouth and Cobden volunteer fire brigades and the West Coast Rescue Helicopter, spent several hours searching the coastline off Greymouth on Saturday night, the Greymouth Star reported.

“We searched the area until dark after a walker on the beach in Blaketown called about someone in the water,” Greymouth chief fire officer Lee Swinburn said yesterday.

On Sunday, Kirkwood said the Emily B Drifter – a specially designed floating device with GPS trackers – was deployed in the search.

“The drifter replicates where a person in the ocean may be.”

The person seen in the water on Saturday evening was “suspected to be deceased”, Senior Sergeant Brent Cook told the Greymouth Star.

“We believe we know who it is.”

The Greymouth Star understands the victim is a local man in his 30s.

A rāhui is in place along the coastline, between Charleston and Ross, until further notice, said Kirkwood.