At least 2 dead, several missing after landslide hits New Zealand campground

ISTANBUL

At least two people died and several others, including children, were reported missing after a landslide struck a campground on New Zealand’s northern coast amid record rainfall on Thursday.

The landslide hit a campsite at Mount Maunganui, flattening tents and sweeping a campervan into nearby hot pools. Witnesses told the New Zealand Herald they heard people screaming for help from inside a toilet block following the slide, but rescuers were unable to find them, and the voices fell silent after about 15 minutes.

The Tauranga area and the surrounding Western Bay of Plenty District, where Mount Maunganui is located, recorded their wettest day on record, with about two and a half months’ worth of rain falling in just 12 hours. Thousands of people also lost power, most of them along the North Island’s east coast.

Police confirmed that two bodies were found at Welcome Bay Road inthe Tauranga area, with another person at a property in the area had been seriously injured, according to Radio New Zealand.

Police said earlier that two people were missing after a slip came down towards properties on the road overnight, and at least one house on Welcome Bay Road suffered damage from the slip, with others also evacuated.

Multiple people still remain missing at the campsite a Mt Maunganui campsite, after a large slip came down on campervans and a shower block on Thursday.

Authorities are also searching for a man north of Auckland who went missing on Wednesday after being swept away by floodwaters while trying to cross a river.

“Police, alongside Fire and Emergency New Zealand, are working to locate and rescue people trapped in a landslide that came down off Mount Maunganui at 9.30 am today,” Bay of Plenty District Commander Superintendent Tim Anderson said, according to Radio New Zealand.

He urged the public to stay away from the campsite and surrounding roads while operations continue and said efforts were also ongoing to find the two missing people in Papamoa.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said extreme weather continued to create dangerous conditions across the North Island.

“Right now, the government is doing everything we can to support those impacted,” Luxon wrote on the US-based social media platform X. He said authorities were closely monitoring developments nationwide, including the major incident at Mount Maunganui, where Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell was on the ground.