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Photo: 123RF
Six people have been airlifted from the area of an ultra marathon event near Arrowtown and others have activated personal beacons.
Maritime New Zealand was first alerted to the developing situation following a beacon being activated at 1am today, it said.
Since then a further eight personal locator beacons had been activated.
Rescue Coordination Centre operations manager Michael Clulow said the six people had been taken to Queenstown Lakes Hospital.
They were suffering from mild hypothermia.
At least 110 people are in the area associated with the ultra marathon, Clulow said.
At this stage the majority of competitors and staff had been accounted for and were safe at the Macetown Camp area, he said.
The priority was reconciling the number of people in the area and confirming they were safe.
A statement on the Facebook page of the Southern Lakes Ultra Marathon said a rescue operation was underway for participants and crews, but at this stage all athletes were safe, well and accounted for.
Heavy rain has caused the Arrow River to rise and bad weather was forecast to continue.
MetService said conditions were fine until a front moved in yesterday, bringing significant rainfall and abnormally cold temperatures and snowfall above 1200 metres.
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