KEY POINTS:
Two children, believed to be brother and sister, have died in a boating tragedy on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf today.
The bodies of the children, an eight-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy, were found by divers after a boat sank and the four adults swam to an island.
Police said they were told at 6.45am that a boat had sunk at Tarahiki Island, also known as Shag Island, in the Hauraki Gulf.
Six people were on the boat and the adults who made it to the island told police the children were missing.
Inspector Willie Taylor from the police Northern Communications Centre in Auckland, said it was tragedy.
He said the four adults were found stranded on a rock.
"They were able to tell our informant two children were missing.
"When some divers went out they were able to locate two bodies in the craft."
He said details of the incident were still not clear but it is believed to have happened after 2am today.
Police said the boat sank quickly and the two children, who first noticed the water coming in, were trapped in the cabin of the boat.
Constable Tony Flanagan from the police launch section said the boat may have sunk stern first with the bow pointing skywards.
Mr Flanagan said the boat had been out fishing since late yesterday morning and was anchored when it began taking on water.
"They tried to get closer to the rocks and the thing sank. The stern has gone down and it has gone down vertically," he said.
The four adults waited for nearly five hours before they were rescued and the search began for the missing children.
The 7.3m aluminium boat was fitted a 225-horsepower outboard engine.
The bodies were recovered by divers and the police dive squad was heading to the area to recover the boat.
As the divers began searching for the boat and the missing children they found the other body floating in the water about 500 metres away.
The third body was not associated with the sinking and may have been in the water for two or three days, Mr Flanagan said.
- NZPA
