A number of residents in the Gisborne region have reported receiving suspicious phone calls from someone claiming to be from council telling them to evacuate early on Thursday morning.
Tairāwhiti Emergency Management Office said it was alerted by a small number of residents who received the calls at about 3am.
The emergency management office confirmed the calls were not made by council or Civil Defence Emergency Management staff, and there was no risk of city rivers flooding homes at the time.
Group controller Ben Green said the fake phone calls were "incredibly disheartening" in a time where people in the region were facing serious risk.
"When issuing evacuation warning Tairāwhiti CDEM will sometimes call or generally door-knock when residents need to evacuate," Green said.
"We also put out messages on online channels and emergency text alerts."
Tairāwhiti Emergency Management Office said it had reported the cases to police and encouraged anyone who had experienced similar calls to messages to report it.
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