A person is dead and another injured after a car hit a tree near Mercer, in the Waikato.
Emergency services were called to the crash near the intersection of Douglas and Mercer Ferry roads at 3.12pm.
Police said the two occupants of the four 4WD vehicle were trapped and had to be freed by firefighters.
The accident appeared to have happened in a forest.
A Fire Service spokesman confirmed that one person had died at the scene and that the second occupant had been airlifted to hospital.
The status of the second person could not be immediately confirmed.
The incident occurred about 300m off the road, he said.
Emergency services remained at the scene as of 6.30pm.
