A blue car which police have been looking for in connection with a crash that killed three Mongrel Mob members has been found.
Officers investigating the crash have been trying to find out whether the gang members' car was run off the road.
The three men - and another man, who was injured - were on their way to the gang's 50th anniversary celebrations in Hastings on Saturday when their car plunged about 150m into the Mohaka River.
An NH90 helicopter winches the car from the river. Photo: Supplied/ New Zealand Defence Force
The blue car was located in Raupunga, not far from the site of the crash at the Mohaka Viaduct on State Highway Two, south of Wairoa in northern Hawke's Bay.
It will be sent to Gisborne for forensic examination, which detectives hoped would help determine whether it was involved in the crash.
They were still trying to establish who was in the suspect vehicle at the time of the crash.
The men killed were Terry Stone, 31, Ronald Rigby, 53, and Nathan Isaac, 29 - all from Wairoa.
Hawke's Bay Mongrel Mob spokesperson Rex Timu has appealed for calm throughout the country.
While things were calm in Wairoa, he said on Tuesday he had heard of a few small gang clashes in other regions.
"The tension in Wairoa is OK, but there are factions around the country and the news has come back to us that little incidents have started to happen, just little clashes between the two groups."
While police reinforcements were brought into Wairoa yesterday for the tangi of the three men, officers said they had not received any reports of gang clashes or altercations.
They said the 'rumour mill' about gang retribution in Hawke's Bay was 'working overtime' but there was no basis to the rumours.
