Twelve-year-old in hospital after falling into hot mud pool

File photo / NZ Herald

A 12-year-old Rotorua is in a serious condition in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital after falling in to a hot mud pool.

The girl was believed to be playing alongside the Puarenga Stream off Froude St, near Whakarewarewa when she tripped and fell into the hot mud pool causing severe burns to her body.

Ambulance north communications team manager Keith Hall said ambulance crews were called to Froude St about 2pm on Thursday after receiving reports of a child falling in to a hot mud pool.

"It was just on a field in Rotorua and she fell down," Mr Hall said.

"We took her to Rotorua Hospital in a serious condition."

The Waikato Air Ambulance transported a Waikato intensive care unit team to Rotorua take the girl to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.

The helicopter pilot said the girl had sustained third degree burns to more than 40 per cent of her body.

Middlemore Hospital communications manager Lauren Young said the girl was in a serious but stable condition in the hospital's intensive care unit.

She said the girl would be moved into the hospital's burns unit when she was able to breath on her own.

Ms Young said it looked as though the girl would be transferred into the burns unit within the next few days.

Witnesses, who owned a nearby coffee shop, said they saw ambulances and police on Froude St mid-afternoon on Thursday but did not know what was happening.

One resident, who did not want to be identified, said local children often played alongside the stream.

She said parents and families always made sure their children knew of the dangers of the hot pools.

Rotorua police were called but were not investigating because the incident was an accident.