Family members organised divers to recover a loved one after a car crashed into Tauranga Harbour overnight.

Senior Sergeant Roger Schreuder said divers organised by the family recovered the woman’s body about 8am.

The Police Dive Squad was expected to arrive this afternoon, he said.

Chapel St will remain closed until about 5pm while police recover the car and carry out scene and forensic examinations.

One person was taken to hospital in a moderate condition after the car crashed off Chapel St into the Waikareao Estuary just after midnight.

Motorists should expect delays and take alternative routes where possible, he said.

Tauranga City Council said Chapel St would close from 1pm between the State Highway 2 intersection, near the Harbour Bridge, and Maxwells Rd while police recovered the vehicle.

The council asked people to avoid the area and divert through Brookfield. Bay Central Shopping Centre will remain accessible via Pitt St.

Police officers at Chapel St this morning. Emergency services were called about 12.40am to reports the car had entered the water. Photo / Zoe Blake

The road was cordoned off this morning, which the council said was due to a “fatal accident”.

A reporter at the scene said an ambulance arrived while the road was closed, and left about 20 minutes later.

She said the road reopened at 9.30am.

Stuff reported a woman standing in a group near the water could be heard repeatedly wailing, “No, no, no”.

Chapel Cafe staff member Steve Singh said he saw police speaking with people who appeared to be family members.

“They were looking upset” as they spoke with officers behind a building.

Chapel St had been blocked, and the road was empty apart from police vehicles and officers investigating, he said.

“There’s nobody coming in and going out.”

Heathcotes Tauranga store manager Brian Stewart saw more than a dozen “very sombre” people who appeared to be family members consoling each other.

The group left before the cordon was lifted.

He said some staff could not get to work this morning after being turned around at the police cordon, and customers were struggling to access the shopping complex.

Stewart believed this was about the third time a vehicle had gone into the water from Chapel St in the past six years.

Last year, a man on a mobility scooter went into the water and was injured.

In December 2021, Maree Geary died after the car she was in plunged into the water. That was just weeks after another car went into the harbour.

Police said earlier that its dive squad had been notified and was expected to arrive later today.

Emergency services were called about 12.40am after reports a car had entered the water off Chapel St, near the shopping centre.

“One person in the vehicle is out and is in hospital, while police are continuing to work to determine whether a second person was in the car,” police said.

Hato Hone St John was called at 12.36am. One person was taken to Tauranga Hospital in a moderate condition.

Fire and Emergency confirmed it was called to the incident, with one person already on land when firefighters arrived.