Opoutere Beach emergency: Family tragedy as one dead, one missing at Coromandel beach

Emergency crews treating people on Opoutere Beach after a major incident. Photo / Supplied

One person has died and a search is underway for another person missing after a water incident at a Coromandel beach.

One person was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition after emergency services launched a mass response to the incident at Opoutere Beach.

Police confirmed six people from a group of seven, seen signalling for help in the water, were rescued but one person “was unable to be revived”.

Holidaymakers have told the Herald about their desperate efforts to save a family caught in “very rough” surf off the isolated beach.

The search continues for the missing person, a police spokesperson said, and a fixed-wing plane would help later this afternoon.

A St John Ambulance spokesperson said three helicopters, three ambulances and two managers went to the scene on Ohui Rd at 11.27am.

Kathy Le Haavre and Tony Brooks, who has worked on a rescue helicopter and is a former surf lifesaver, were both on the beach when they spotted a man being dragged out to sea.

Le Haavre, a nurse, spent half an hour giving the man CPR before paramedics arrived on the scene but he was later confirmed to have died.

Both Brooks and Le Haarve believed the group was a family as they comforted a woman on the beach who they understood was the dead man’s wife.

“To lose her husband in front of her eyes and to know her son [still missing] hadn’t come in must be really tough,” Brooks said.

“She had her whole family there. Her son lost his dad. Can you imagine the heartache?”

The person the Aerocool Rescue Helicopter took to Waikato Hospital in a critical condition was a teenage boy. Photo / Supplied

The critical patient, a teenage boy, was airlifted to Waikato Hospital.

Another person in a moderate condition was taken to Thames Hospital. Three other people are in a minor condition.

Earlier, a witness at the scene told the Herald an older man had received CPR for at least 40 minutes but was unresponsive.

“Then there is a younger man who is unresponsive but conscious.”

Emergency services responding to an incident at Opoutere Beach, Coromandel, with rescue helicopters flying in to help. Photo / Supplied

Three helicopters responded to the emergency - two from Auckland and one from Tauranga, a spokesperson for the Phillips Rescue Trust told the Herald.

Police received a report that a number of people were in difficulty in the water about 11.30am.

At least one person is reported to be in a critical condition, police said in a statement.

Emergency services treating people on Opoutere Beach after a major water incident. Photo / Supplied

The Phillips Rescue Trust confirmed their Aerocool Rescue Helicopter was at the scene and an Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter spokesperson said two aircraft had been tasked to a water-related incident involving multiple people in the water.

Surf Lifesaving NZ have been approached for comment.

Opoutere Beach is about 20km north of Whangamatā, on the eastern seaboard of Coromandel Peninsula.

Today’s emergency comes less than 24 hours after a man went missing in the water in Whangamatā on Tuesday.

A police spokesperson said emergency services responded to a report of a man missing near the estuary, shortly after 6pm.

A rescue helicopter found him but he was unable to be revived.