police and firefighters<\/a>\u00a0who reacted \u201cwith speed and care\u201d when the alarm was raised.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Police have returned the boys\u2019 bodies to wh\u0101nau and their deaths have been referred to the coroner.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
![\"A]()
A r\u0101hui is in place on the river until next Thursday. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Local iwi Ng\u0101ti T\u016bwharetoa have placed a r\u0101hui on the river until next Thursday, with access also not allowed on the eastern side of the river.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
People who wished to pay their respects could do so from a distance, on the town side of the river near the judo club, Tunui said.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Police]()
Police and others at the scene after two boys were killed in a bank collapse next to Tarawera River in Kawerau yesterday. Photo \/ Troy Baker, Whakatane Beacon<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Yesterday afternoon, the area was taped off and about 35 people gathered just beyond the cordon after news of the incident broke.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Some embraced while others looked on quietly towards the riverbank. One young girl was in tears.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The boys were killed while playing and fishing at the Tarawera River in Kawerau. Photo \/ Google Earth<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Three others who were at the scene were also treated yesterday by ambulance staff.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
One local Kawerau woman told the\u00a0Herald\u00a0she knew the families and the victims were \u201cgreat boys\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were just fishing, doing nothing wrong, not being naughty. They were really good boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
She described Kawerau, a small town with a population of just over 7680, as a community where everyone knows everyone.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
With few accidents happening in the region, she said, the community has been greatly affected by the loss.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all know each other here. It\u2019s such a terrible tragedy … that\u2019s why our town is so silent today.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liam Wade
03-1757-0128908-08
The pair were playing and fishing with friends next to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-384308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}