The owners of a house where a deck collapsed, sending about 20 people and a hot barbecue plummeting to the ground, say it was lucky no one was killed.

A Morrinsville nurse who was crushed by a car as she jogged along a residential street had been planning a party for her daughter's 13th birthday this week.

A number of people have reportedly been hospitalised after a deck collapsed in West Auckland last night.

A young girl was plucked from certain death as Indian student Daksh Modasia drowned after wading into a deadly hole at Hunua Falls.

Safety is being reviewed at Hunua Falls following the death of a tourist at the Auckland beauty spot yesterday.

A 20-year-old tourist has drowned at an Auckland beauty spot. The Indian national was attempting to cross the front of the Hunua Falls, south-east of Auckland.

Thinking her husband was dead, Nina Bartlett scrambled out of bed to get to her newborn baby seconds after a stolen car ploughed through their bedroom at 150km/h.

A stolen car sought by police in connection with an assault ploughed into a large road sign pole in Hamilton, critically injuring a teenager.

A 20-year-old has drowned at an Auckland beauty spot this afternoon.

The mother of Matthew Smith has extended her "heartfelt thanks" to those who tried to revive her 10-year-old son when he was electrocuted at the family home.

An 83-year-old woman driver died after her BMW and a stock truck collided on the outskirts of Hamilton yesterday afternoon.

Two men are recovering from burns after the power pylon they were working on exploded, cutting electricity to nearly 800 homes.

Two linesmen have suffered superficial burns in an explosion in Warkworth, north of Auckland.

A 12-year-old bundled newborn twins and another baby through thick black smoke to safety after a pot sterilising bottles sparked a fire in an upper-storey flat.

The number of injury compensation claims accepted from netball players has increased sharply, far outstripping the rise in the number of people playing the sport.

Kiwi documentary maker Rob Harley was one of the first journalists to get close to the Texas fertiliser plant after the explosion.

A massive explosion at a fertiliser plant in the Texas town of West killed at least five to 15 people and injured more than 160 others, leaving the factory a smouldering ruin and levelling buildings for blocks in every direction.

The desperate plea for help was one of many that poured into 911 in the moments after the West Fertiliser Plant exploded in Texas yesterday while firefighters were trying to contain an earlier blaze.

One person has suffered serious injuries after a train and a car collided in Hawkes Bay this afternoon.

Two people suffered minor injuries when a car and a tour bus, with 24 passengers, collided in Fiordland today.