Featured Image Credit: DJ MILLS / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: New Zealand, Weather, Life, World News
Emily Brown
Topics: New Zealand, Weather, Life, World News
Multiple people, including at least one child, remain missing in New Zealand after a landslide hit a campsite at the popular tourist spot of Mount Maunganui, on the country's east coast.
The disaster took place around 9.30am on Thursday morning (January 22), after severe storms in the region brought record-breaking rainfall. Tauranga, the city which lies closest to Mount Maunganui in New Zealand, received 295mm of rain in the 30 hours leading up to 6am on Thursday.
According to witnesses who spoke to local news, those in the area heard a loud noise before a huge chunk of the hillside began to shift.
One tourist who spoke to BBC News recalled: "I was just swimming in the spa bath in the hot pool and then I heard this huge tree crack and all this dirt came off like behind me. And then I look behind me and there's this huge landslide coming down.
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"I'm still shaking from it now."
First responders arrived at the scene, and Fire and Emergency NZ spokesperson William Pike has explained that the initial fire crew were able to hear calls for help coming from amid the broken land.
“Members of the public ... tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices,” he said, according to The Guardian. “Our initial fire crew arrived and were able to hear the same.”
In another update, rescue workers said there were no signs of life after the landslide, but responders are still working with dogs to try and find any survivors.
Emergency minister Mark Mitchell has confirmed that a young girl is among those who are unaccounted for at the campsite, which has been left with upturned trees and overturned camper vans in the wake of the disaster. He added that while officials have a 'rough idea' of how many people are missing, authorities are waiting for an exact number before making an announcement.
He explained: “It’s a fluid and sensitive issue at the moment. Everyone is working as hard as they can to get the best possible resolution possible, but in no doubt at all it is a very difficult and challenging situation.”
Rescue workers are set to work through the night to search for missing people.
Further afield, Fire and Emergency NZ shared an update on Facebook to say that it has responded to more than 230 weather-related callouts between 1am on Tuesday to 8.30am Thursday.
Some of the affected areas have been battered by the equivalent of at least a month's worth of rain in 12 hours, with Mitchell describing the damage as being 'like a warzone'.