By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) – New Zealand emergency crews continued to search on Friday for victims of a landslide that ripped through a busy campground on the country’s North Island the day before due to heavy rains.
The landslide hit Mount Maunganui on the island’s east coast at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday (2030 GMT Wednesday), bringing soil and rubble down on the busy campsite.
Police reported that as many as nine people may be missing including children. Families enjoying the summer school holiday were among the campers. Recreational vehicles and at least one structure were crushed, images showed.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was due to visit areas hit by recent flooding on Friday.
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. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark 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. A landslide in the neighbouring town of Papamoa killed two on Thursday, and a man was washed away with his vehicle north of Auckland on Wednesday.
Roads remained closed in some of the worst-hit areas, making some North Island towns inaccessible by land. The civil defence organization 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.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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