Actress Naya Rivera is reportedly missing after her four-year-old son was found alone in a boat on a lake in Southern California.

The Glee star rented the boat on July 8 at Lake Piru, north-west of Los Angeles, the Ventura County Sheriff’s office said.

It said a search and rescue operation was suspended overnight and “will continue at first light”.

Naya Rivera, 33, is best known for playing cheerleader Santana Lopez in Glee.

The musical comedy TV series ran on the Fox network from 2009 to 2015.

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Naya Rivera’s child was spotted by another boater three hours after the actress had taken the boat, CBS Los Angeles reports, quoting the sheriff’s office.

It says the boy told investigators that he and his mother were swimming – but she never got back into the boat.

The missing person was later formally identified as Naya Rivera, a Los Angeles resident.

The sheriff’s department said the lake would be closed to the public as the search resumed on July 9, with dive teams from across the region taking part.

On July 7, Naya Rivera posted on tweeted a picture of herself and her son with a caption “just the two of us”.

Naya Rivera began her career as a child actress and model, appearing in TV commercials in the US.

As a four-year-old she starred in the Royal Family sitcom, and had a number of other TV appearances.

It was playing cold-hearted Santana Lopez in Glee that made Naya Rivera a star in America.

In 2014, Naya Rivera starred in the horror film At the Devil’s Door.

The same year she married fellow actor Ryan Dorsey – who is the father of her son.

Naya Rivera and Ryan Dorsey divorced in 2018 and have joint custody of the boy.