23 Sep 2013

Search for Canadian's body scaled back

6:26 pm on 23 September 2013

The Westland community has been asked to keep an eye out for any sign of missing Canadian man Connor Hayes in the coming days.

The search for the 25-year-old has been formally scaled back after days of intensive searching along the Haast River and Westland beaches.

It's believed Mr Hayes was washed downstream after he and his partner's rental campervan was swept into the river by a slip last week.

A woman's body, believed to be that of Joanna Lam, 24, was found washed up on Haast Beach on Friday.

A Greymouth police spokesperson says whitebaiters and other river users have been asked to keep looking for any signs of a body, while helicopters and jetboats working to clear the slip in the Haast Pass have also been briefed.

A number of volunteers are combing the shoreline at the end of each high tide.