NZ body returned after burial row

The body of a New Zealand woman, snatched by her estranged daughter from the back of a hearse, has been returned after a bitter family row was defused.

Ivy May Ngahooro, 76, had requested an Anglican burial but her daughter wanted a Maori ceremony and took her body as it was about to be buried on Wednesday.

After a tense stand-off, the body was returned on Friday and buried after an Anglican ceremony in Hamilton.

Mrs Ngahooro was of European descent but married a Maori man.

Police spokesman Andrew McAlley said family members had negotiated an agreement for the return of Mrs Ngahooro's body after a High Court injunction ordered she not be buried in a Maori burial ground.

"It is a positive that both parties were able to come to an amicable resolution," he told the Associated Press.

Trish Scoble, who is Mrs Ngahooro's niece and the executor of her will, said Mrs Ngahooro's daughter, Joanne Bennett, had not seen her mother for many years.

Earlier, Ms Scoble described how the body was taken just as it was going to be buried.

"They took the casket out of the hearse [and] chucked it in the back of an Isuzu - that's just no ceremony whatsoever - and pulled away," she told TV station TVNZ.

Analysts say clashes over where people are buried are not uncommon in Maori society - especially when the family includes both Maori members and people of European descent.