The Huntly Police and community have been searching the Waikato River for 13 year old Zharian Watkins.

Zharian has previously been reported as missing whilst swimming in the Waikato river several days ago.

The search for Zharian has been on-going for the last few days and yesterday, the Police Dive Squad was called in again to carry out an extensive sweep of the river assisted by "Environment Waikato".

At this time, a decision has been made to scale down the search and re evaluate the situation in the coming days.

Police and Zharian's family are grateful for the assistance of the local community who turned out in force to assist with the search.

Police remain committed to locating Zharian and any calls relating to this matter are to be directed to the Huntly Police.