Mystery body found on Ninety Mile Beach

Ninety Mile Beach. Photo / Richard Robinson

Police are asking for help to identify the body of a man which was found on Ninety Mile Beach in the far north on Sunday afternoon.

The badly decomposed body was found in shallow water about 7.5km south of the Bluff by a member of the public at about 2pm, say police. .

A post-mortem was conducted in Auckland today in an effort to identify the man and his cause of death.

Police say that despite earlier reports that the man was of Asian or Indian ethnicity, the results of the post-mortem were inconclusive in this regard.

The man is described as 1.72m tall with long black hair and of medium build.

He was wearing faded blue denim jeans, one red and white Adidas running shoe and a blue, red and white checked shirt.

It is estimated that the body had been in the water for one to two weeks.

Police say the man may have come from a ship or washed off the beach or rocks, but have not received reports of such incidents.

If anyone has any information that may help in identifying the man or knows of anyone who is missing that may fit this description, they can contact Houhora police on (09) 409 8822 or Kaitaia police on (09) 408 6500.

- NZ Herald staff