'Glee' actress Naya Rivera missing after taking boat ride with son

Glee actress Naya Rivera is missing after taking her 4-year-old son to a lake in California, police have confirmed.

The actress, 33, had taken her son to Lake Piru, north-west of Los Angeles in Ventura County, for a boat ride. After renting the boat at 1pm local time, her child was found alone in the vessel three hours later, while Rivera was nowhere to be found. The police had immediately ordered an aerial search and deployed a dive team to the site.

Rivera welcomed her son, Josey Hollis, with then-husband Ryan Dorsey in 2015.

The boy told authorities that he and his mother went for a swim, but his mother never returned to the boat. The child was wearing a life vest, whereas Rivera was not.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Department had earlier confirmed on Twitter they were searching for a possible drowning victim at Lake Piru. Fillmore County police were on the scene, and a search and rescue dive team was on its way to join the search.

The department later confirmed Rivera was the missing person in question, adding that the search had been called off until "first light".

Rivera played Santana Lopez on the long-running US sitcom Glee, which ran from 2009 to 2015.

NBC Los Angeles anchor and reporter Robert Kovacik tweeted that Rivera is "presumed dead", saying: "The son got back on the boat, his mom did not. He was wearing a life-vest, she was not."

Meanwhile, Rivera's fans have taken to Twitter to share their disbelief at the news.

Her Glee co-star Harry Shum Jr, who played Mike Chang in the sitcom, simply posted on Twitter: "Praying".

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