UPDATE: Search for missing pig hunters

FILE

UPDATE:

The pig hunters reported missing in Pureora Forest are safe and well.

They walked themselves out to a Department of Conservation base on Barryville Rd.

Police are still clarifying whether there are two or three hunters.

A search was mounted after the party did not to return home from their trip into the forest, which was west of Lake Taupo and east of Te Kuiti.

EARLIER:

A search team has headed into the Pureora Forest after finding the car of the missing pig hunters.

A police spokesman said five people from Waipa Land Search and Rescue and four police officers were searching.

He said he could not confirm whether there were two or three hunters missing.

EARLIER:
Police have been alerted to a number of missing pig hunters in Pureora Forest, which is west of Lake Taupo and east of Te Kuiti.

Police said there could be two or three hunters missing.

Police were called by a relative after they failed to return home last night.

Land Search and Rescue (LandSAR) teams are still assessing the situation.

Police are following positive lines of enquiry.

More details to come.