At least 6 missing after Mount Maunganui landslide hits New Zealand campsite; urgent search continues
TAURANGA, New Zealand — Rescuers are digging through deep mud for at least six missing people after a landslide from Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcano, ploughed into a crowded campsite in northern New Zealand, destroying caravans, camper vans and a shower block.
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Police said a 15-year-old is the youngest person unaccounted for after the slide struck following heavy rain that drenched a large swath of the North Island. Voices could be heard calling for help beneath the rubble immediately after the collapse, authorities said.
Search-and-rescue teams, contractors operating mechanical excavators and police sniffer dogs worked through the night and into the next day, combing layered debris in a high-risk environment. “We are operating in a complex and high-risk environment,” Fire and Emergency Assistant National Commander David Guard said, adding crews would continue “until the search is complete.”
Assistant Police Commissioner Tim Anderson said six people were confirmed missing and officers were trying to verify the whereabouts of three other campers believed to have left the site earlier. Asked if there were signs of life, Anderson said, “Not as of today but we live in hope.”
At one point, diggers halted and a police photographer was called in; a hearse was later seen leaving the scene. Emergency officials declined to discuss any recovery of bodies, citing sensitivity to families. About two dozen relatives stood across the road watching the excavations.
The disaster has prompted immediate questions over whether campers should have been evacuated sooner. Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdale said authorities had received reports of a smaller slip earlier in the day. “We’ve heard there was possibly a small slip where people did move away from the site,” he said. “Those questions will be answered.”
A hiker in the area an hour before the collapse, Colin McGonagle, told reporters he saw water seeping from the mountainside. “You could see the water, it was like a wall of mud trying to break through,” he said.
The slide battered vehicles that were later pulled from the mud and carted away. The campsite, a popular tourist spot at the base of Mount Maunganui, sits near residential neighborhoods and beaches in the Bay of Plenty.
In a separate incident likely linked to the same severe weather, emergency crews on Monday retrieved two bodies after a landslide hit a home in the nearby harborside city of Tauranga. Officials said one of the dead was a Chinese national.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he had spoken with families of the missing at the campsite. “Everyone is clearly highly anxious, clearly hopeful,” he told reporters. “There’s massive hope. There’s massive worry, concern.”
New Zealand’s North Island has experienced multiple weather-driven landslides in recent years as saturated hillsides give way after intense rain. Authorities did not immediately provide a timeline for the current operation at Mount Maunganui, but said crews would maintain the search as long as conditions allowed.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
