The death of a man found in a deep hole on the West Coast today is not believed to be related to this morning's earthquake in the region, police say.
The man's body was discovered by workers checking power lines following the magnitude 6.0 quake about 2.15pm near the Kumara-Inchbonnie Rd, southeast of Greymouth, police said.
It appeared the man had fallen 18m into the hole in a remote rural area, which police said was not created by the quake, but was a natural formation in the landscape.
An investigation was under way, police said.
A search and rescue abseil team was on its way to the scene to recover the man's body.
The recovery operation was expected to take some time, and no further information would be released until his body could be removed for examination, police said.
