Multiple people, including children, are unaccounted for after a landslip at a New Zealand holiday park in the wake of unprecedented rainfall.
Land gave way above the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park at around 9.30am local time (7.30am AEDT) on Thursday morning, crushing campervans and a shower-toilet block.
"Whilst the land's still moving there, they're in a rescue mission," a police official told reporters at the scene.
"I can't be drawn on numbers. What I can say is that it is single figures."
Emergency management minister Mark Mitchell described the event as a "tragedy", telling reporters that "parents and the husband of some of the people that we're currently trying to rescue" were in the campground.
The landslip followed Tauranga's heaviest single day of rainfall on record, with 270mm falling in the 24 hours to 9am.
Mitchell confirmed on Thursday afternoon that two bodies were recovered from a separate landslide at Welcome Bay, near Tauranga. Another couple in Welcome Bay were rescued after a landslip hit their house, with one seriously injured.
New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government "is doing everything we can to support those impacted" by dangerous weather in several regions.
"We are standing with these local communities in the response — and we will stand with them in the recovery too," he posted on X.
Alister Hardy, a fisherman who was nearby, told the NZ Herald he heard "rolling thunder and cracking of trees" before looking up and seeing "the whole hillside gave way".
"There were people running and screaming and I saw people get bowled. There are people trapped," he said.
Hiker Mark Tangney saw people fleeing the camp and ran to help, the NZ Herald reported.
"I was one of the first there. There were six or eight other guys there on the roof of the toilet block with tools just trying to take the roof off because we could hear people screaming: 'Help us, help us, get us out of here'," Tangney said.
Later, the voices stopped, he said.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesperson William Pike said the first people on the scene heard calls for help from inside the landslip.
"Our initial fire crew arrived and had the same were able to hear the same."
Search and rescue experts made a call to pull back from the slip, given the treacherous conditions.
Rare weather warnings
Mount Maunganui is a tourist hotspot, hosting one of New Zealand's most popular beaches and well-loved walking trails.
The big wet extended beyond the Bay of Plenty, with large areas of New Zealand's North Island drenched on Wednesday and overnight into Thursday.
MetService issued a rare red weather warning for a "threat to life" in several regions.
In Northland and Tairāwhiti, towns including Ōakura have suffered huge flooding, with some communities cut off.
There are also fears for a man in his 40s swept away in his car in the swollen Mahurangi River, north of Auckland, on Wednesday, while a passenger was able to scramble to safety.
The red weather warnings issued by MetService are reserved for only the most concerning events.
People have been trapped on rooftops in Tairāwhiti, where Mark Law — the helicopter pilot involved in rescue efforts after the deadly 2019 Whakaari volcanic eruption — is again helping out.
Photos of the region on social media show vast flooding, with forestry slash among the debris.
Thousands of people — in Northland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and Tairāwhiti — were also left without power from the storm and flooding.
This week's alert is the first rain-related red warning to hit the same area since Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023, killing 11 people and causing $7.7 billion in damage.
Two search and rescue experts were among those killed as they scoured a property in Auckland's west coast.
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