The police in Gisborne say a two-year-old boy has drowned, and his three-year-old relative is in a critical condition in Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital, after they were found in a Gisborne river on Thursday afternoon.
The pair had wandered away from a house in the suburb of Riverdale to the nearby Taruheru River.
They were found in the water by a neighbour, just as family members had started looking for the boys.
Sergeant Grant Pigott said two-year old Sukhraj Singh could not be revived, but his relative, who is in intensive care in Starship Hospital, is expected to survive.