A person has been taken to Greymouth Hospital in a serious condition after falling down the old Tyneside Mine on the West Coast.

A rescue operation was launched just after 11am to pull the person out of a coal mine shaft.

Hato Hone St John said the injured person was taken to Greymouth Hospital for treatment.

Earlier, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager said two trucks and one support vehicle were at the now permanently closed coal mine.

He said the person was stuck at the bottom of a mine shaft and crews were working to rescue them.

The highway side of the site was closed while the recovery effort was under way.

Department of Conservation Greymouth senior ranger Darrell Haworth said staff were on-site as emergency services worked to extract the person, who had fallen down the shaft on the highway side of the Brunner Mine site.

“We first want to ensure the person is extracted safely from the mineshaft before we undertake work to ensure the site is safe for the public.

“The mineshaft is securely fenced; at this time, we do not know how the person accessed the shaft.”

The Tyneside mine operated from the 1870s until 1908.

It was one of several mines situated on the banks of the Grey River, between the small townships of Stillwater and Taylorville, near Dobson.