No sign of teen missing in stormy W Coast seas

Searchers continue to hold out hope of finding alive a teenager swept into stormy West Coast seas on Sunday.

In clearing weather overnight, the hunt for 15-year-old Morgan Durrant continued using spotlights and four-wheel-drive vehicles a few hours either side of low tide around 3am.

That followed a search on foot during the day yesterday by groups of walkers along 85km of coastline.

Morgan was swept into the sea with his 15-year-old stepbrother at Joyce Bay, Charleston, about 27km southwest of Westport, around 10am on Sunday.

The stepbrother managed to clamber back on to the rocks and raised the alarm, sparking a search by about 40 police and volunteers, two helicopters, the Greymouth Coastguard and Buller Surf Rescue.

Early today assistant search controller Constable Mike Tinnelly of Westport police said no signs of Morgan had yet been found.

Today the search area would be covered by searchers on horseback and two and four-wheel motorbikes, again either side of low tide. The search was expected to be reassessed later today.

There remained a chance Morgan could still be alive, Mr Tinnelly said.

"Yesterday's search was walking, looking for footprints above the high tide mark. Nothing was found so we're really just looking for any clues at all now."

- NZPA