Search for Emma focuses on forest

Police have set up two search areas in north Christchurch in their bid to find missing woman Emma Agnew who disappeared a week ago.
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Agnew's friends have gathered in the suburb of Spencerville while police officers go door to door in the hunt for Agnew.

Police have set up a base in the neighbourhood with about 10 officers, including detectives, canvassing people in the area.

Meanwhile, about 15 searchers are working in the Chaneys area scouring forest and scrub.

The team are battling the heat as temperatures reach the mid-20s.

Earlier, police dogs were brought in to help with the search while a helicopter swept over the Spencer Park and Brooklands lagoon.

Detective Inspector Tom Fitzgerald did not respond to media calls this morning, and has announced a press conference will be held this afternoon.

Agnew, 20, has not been seen or heard from since last Thursday morning, when she texted her family to say she planned to meet a man interested in buying her red Mazda Familia car.

The car was found later that day burning at Bromley Park in eastern Christchurch.

Police hold grave concerns for her safety.

Initially appealing to the public for sightings of the car in Christchurch's northern suburbs of St Albans, Papanui, Redwood, or Belfast, police yesterday shifted their focus further north to Spencer Park - a semi-rural 47-hectare park adjoining the Brooklands Lagoon.

Fitzgerald said yesterday the searches were prompted by ``a number of things we've been working on over the past week'' but he refused to be more specific.

Some houses had been searched in the hunt for Agnew, but her personal belongings, including two cellphones, had not been found.

A forensic examination of Agnew's partially burnt-out car was continuing and police were also examining her computer to try to identify anyone she may have been in contact with.

Meanwhile, a website set up to appeal for funds to help with the hunt for Agnew has raised more than $8000 in two days.

The site, set up on Tuesday by Deaf Association chief executive Rachel Noble, set a target of $10,000 to help buy supplies, and pay for counselling and other services for those close to the missing woman and those involved in the search.

By mid-morning it had raised $8606.40, with donations coming from friends of the family, concerned strangers, organisations and groups.

All donations came with supportive messages for the family and pleas for Agnew to come home safely.

- © Fairfax NZ News