The frantic mother of a Gisborne preschooler was last night clinging to the hope her boy is alive, more than 40 hours after he vanished.

Gisborne residents are being urged to search their properties for Lucas Ward, 4.

The police dive squad is searching a Gisborne river close to the home where a four-year-old boy disappeared yesterday.

Respected Ngati Porou kaumatua and historian, Dr Te Kapunga Matemoana Dewes, known as 'Koro', has died.

Lucas Ward's family 'just turned around and he wasn't there', police say. Photo / NZPA

A man was shot in the face and 24 arrests made after a violent gang brawl in the Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa this morning.

A man arrested during a major police drugs operation offended from his home and should forfeit it, the Crown says.

A woman police constable was attacked by a motorist she pulled over for drunken driving.

The debate over Moko's final resting place has been settled with the friendly bottlenose dolphin to be buried...

A massive slip that has cut off road access to 18 houses north of Gisborne has been described as "nature at its best".

Moko the dolphin, who thrilled and sometimes unsettled swimmers with his playfulness and imposing physical size, has been found dead.