Two bodies have been recovered from a car that plunged into Lake Rotoma in the Bay of Plenty on Saturday.
A dive squad conducted an underwater search of the lake on Sunday morning after the car veered off the road and entered the water.
In a statement, police confirmed that two people died in the incident and the vehicle was recovered on Sunday morning.
Emergency services were notified of the single-vehicle crash on State Highway 30 at 12:40pm on Saturday .
"Tragically the two people were deceased when recovered from the lake by the dive squad. Police are working to support the family of those killed," the statement said.
Prior to the search, it was unknown how many occupants were inside the car at the time of the crash. Authorities had yet to ascertain whether any passengers remained inside the submerged vehicle.
Lake Rotoma is the fourth largest lake of the 11 lakes in the Rotorua Lakes district.
It has a maximum depth of 83 metres.
