A 42-year-old woman has died at a Whakatane beach after reportedly trying to save her child from drowning.
Police say an off-duty officer saw the local woman face down in the waist-high water along Coastlands beach on Saturday.
Onlookers told them she was trying to pull one of her children to safety when she got into difficulty.
The off-duty officer performed CPR on the woman but was unable to revive her.
Police say she was wearing clothing, not a swimsuit, which may have weighed her down.
A medical condition, such as a cardiac problem, has also not been ruled out as the cause of drowning.
