A water rescue is underway in Christchurch where a man is clinging to a bridge pillar in the Waimakariri River.
Police were alerted at 12.30pm by a member of the public who spotted the man in the water. He is still hanging on to the pillar of the bridge - on the Northern Motorway near the off ramp to Kaiapoi.
A police spokesman said the Coast Guard and Search and Rescue were deployed but due to the shallow water where the man was the boat could not get to him. They are currently getting an inflatable vessel into the river to retrieve the man.
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The river is not in flood, but the spokesman said it was "not a good place" for the man to be.
It is unclear how he came to be in the river.
