Man clings to life under overturned boat

An air pocket kept an Otago man alive as he waited to be rescued from an overturned motor boat yesterday.

The 44-year-old Milton man was on board a 7.5m hard-top aluminium boat with four others when it flipped in the Taieri River mouth, south of Dunedin at about 10.40am yesterday.

A witness said it appeared the boaties had waited for the waves to die down around the river mouth before crossing but had been caught by a wave.

The four other occupants were thrown from the boat and made it to shore.

Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue staff began searching for the man after he was not seen to resurface.

"We knew he was in the upside-down boat. We were communicating with him by yelling through the hull," Senior Sergeant Steve Aitken told the Otago Daily Times.

"There was stuff blocking the doorway so he had found an air pocket and stayed there."

Water rescue squad team leader Scott Weatherall told the newspaper they reached the man just in time.

"He was telling us he was running out of air and he was starting to feel pretty crook. He had breathed all the air in his air pocket and it was contaminated with petrol fumes."

A boat towed the capsized vessel close to shore and a diver took breathing apparatus to the man while rescuers worked to free him.

He was taken to Dunedin Hospital with minor injuries.

- NZPA