A person has died and others are unaccounted for after a house fire in Southland, police say.
Emergency services were called to the house fire on View St, Manapouri shortly after 3:30am.
Det Sgt Mark McCloy said they were still working to account for all residents.
A scene examination was underway and the cause of the blaze continued to be unexplained, he said.
Neighbour Allan Biggs said a few neighbours had gathered on the street and he could hear the fire crackling.
"With the siren going off, eventually curiousity got the better of me and I got up and [was] just surprised to see the house well alight across the road," Biggs said.
"We do get the odd callout of a fire engine in the middle of the night but it's usually a traffic accident or something like that, nothing like this before."
RNZ
