New Zealand is ‘full of grief”, the prime minister has said, after landslides tore through a house and a busy campground, leaving two dead and at least six victims still missing, APA reports, citing The Guardian.
Police said emergency crews were still searching for at least six people, including two teenagers, believed missing beneath the debris of a landslide, which struck a Mount Maunganui campsite on Thursday morning. Police were attempting to contact another three people. Families enjoying the summer school holiday were among the campers. Recreational vehicles and at least one structure were crushed, images showed.
During a visit to the region on Friday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he had met with some of the grieving families, who had told him they were feeling well supported during an “absolutely tragic” time.
“New Zealand is full of grief today … and grieves with them,” he said.
The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, posted on X that one of the dead from the landslides was a Chinese citizen.
“Our hearts are with the impacted families at this difficult moment,” he said. “Deeply appreciate the assistance provided promptly by Mfat and NZ Police when we reached out yesterday.”
The first landslide hit a house in the community of Welcome Bay on New Zealand’s North Island at 4.50 am, police said. Two people escaped the house, and the bodies of two who were trapped inside were recovered hours later, the emergency management minister, Mark Mitchell, said.
Later the same morning, emergency services were called to a second slide at the base of nearby Mount Maunganui, also on the North Island. The rubble hit Beachside Holiday Park in a town named after the extinct volcano. Images showed vehicles, travel trailers and an amenities block crushed by debris.
Local mayor Mahe Drysdale told Radio New Zealand that while search-and-rescue teams had continued at the campground through the night, there had been no progress in finding missing people.
“That’s really hard, and we’re here with the families and as you can imagine, just that uncertainty of where they are and when we might have a result is pretty hard,” Drysdale said.
He said the area remained unstable. Mitchell told Radio New Zealand it was a challenging and difficult environment. He said police were checking if some campers may have left without informing authorities.
The landslide happened after heavy rains soaked much of the North Island’s east coast earlier this week and caused widespread damage.
NZ Civil Defence warned on Thursday morning that landslides can happen without warning, and advised the public to keep an eye out for rockfalls, or sinking land at the bottom of slopes, as well at stuck doors or windows, or gaps in window frames.
“Get out of the path of the landslide quickly. Evacuate if the building you are in is in danger,” the agency posted on Facebook.
Roads remained closed in some of the worst-hit areas, making some North Island towns inaccessible by land. The civil defence organisation in Tairawhiti District said in a social media post that people were walking over landslides to collect water and food from welfare hubs and warned against this due to fears of further landslides.
Police superintendent Tim Anderson said the number of people missing was in the “single figures”.
No survivors or bodies had been recovered by late Thursday from the Mount Maunganui rubble, where dogs were being used to sniff for human victims, Mitchell said.
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