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Rescue Teams Race To Find Missing After Landslide Hits Mount Maunganui Campground

Unstable, saturated terrain is limiting safe access for search crews after an exceptionally wet tropical low.

Overview

  • Police say the number of people unaccounted for is in the single figures, with a young girl among those missing at the Beachside Holiday Park in Mount Maunganui.
  • Fire and Emergency NZ reported voices were heard under rubble initially, then withdrew crews due to further slip risk, and no survivors had been recovered hours later.
  • The campground has been evacuated, sniffer dogs and helicopters are assisting, and Mount Maunganui is closed to the public as geotechnical assessments proceed.
  • Separate incidents include two people missing after a landslide struck a house in the Papamoa/Welcome Bay area and a man swept away during a river crossing near Warkworth.
  • States of local emergency, road closures and thousands of power outages persist across multiple regions; MetService has lifted North Island rain warnings as the system moves east after record downpours.