A rescue mission is underway for a male snowboarder missing after an avalanche in an area called Dirty Four, which is just outside the Coronet Peak ski limits, northeast of Queenstown.
Two other people, who were with the snowboarder, raised the
alarm.
Police were advised about 5pm of the avalanche which is believed to
have happened about 15 minutes earlier, police southern
communications Inspector Warren Kemp says.
A full-scale search and rescue operation is under way.
"At the moment we've got rescue personnel up on the mountain with lighting and alpine rescue dogs and searchers still searching."
Police are concentrating on the rescue and would later look into the details of what had happened, Kemp says.
Nine days ago an Australian man was killed after an avalanche in the Southern Alps in Canterbury.
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