An international hunt was launched Thursday by New Zealand police to trace a couple who fled after reportedly having millions of dollars mistakenly paid into their bank account.

As per the media reports, following the error at Westpac bank to mistakenly deposited 10 million NZ dollars in the Asian couple's account, they fled overseas. The couple ran a petrol station in the northern city of Rotorua.

Though the details related to the amount of money withdrawn and details of the couple was disclosed by neither bank nor police, but bank did specify that it was pursuing vigorous criminal and civil action.

The bank was however able to recover some of the money, said Rotorua police Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey.

It was confirmed by a Westpac spokesman that the windfall occurred due to human error.

(via TopNews New Zealand. Contributed by Girish Kumar Guha)