A yellow excavator digs through dirt with police watching on.

Search and rescue efforts are continuing at the Mount Maunganui campground in New Zealand. (ABC News: Fletcher Yeung)

In short:

Authorities have worked through the night to try to find people trapped by a landslide in New Zealand.

Specialist officers used heavy earthmoving equipment to try and find those under the rubble at the campsite at Mount Maunganui.

Police say they have located the bodies of two people who were killed in another landslide in the Bay of Plenty region at Welcome Bay.


Six people have been confirmed missing in a landslide that ripped through a busy campground on New Zealand’s North Island, authorities say, as emergency crews continue to comb through the rubble.

Heavy rains triggered the landslide on Thursday morning at Mount Maunganui on the island’s east coast, bringing soil and rubble down on the busy campsite in the city of Tauranga, where families were enjoying summer school holidays.

Police District Commander Tim Anderson said authorities were working to contact three more people in addition to the six confirmed missing.

“We don’t believe they’re here but we’ve still got to do that inquiry,” he said.

A white caravan next to files of debris.

Police say it could be days before the search is finalised. (ABC News: Fletcher Yeung)

New Zealand officials have not reported any deaths at the campground.

Two people died on Thursday in a landslide in the neighbouring suburb of Papamoa, police said.

Chinese ambassador Wang Xiaolong said in a post on X that one was a Chinese citizen.

Tauranga 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.

Images showed recreational vehicles and at least one structure had been crushed.

People in high-vis vests wait under a temporary shelter with emergency vehicles in the foreground.

Families face an anxious wait as authorities try to search through debris from the landslide at Mount Maunganui campground. (ABC News: Fletcher Yeung)

“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,” Mr Drysdale said.

He said the area remained unstable.

Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell told Radio New Zealand it was a challenging environment.

He said police were checking if some campers may have left without informing authorities.

New Zealand Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told the New Zealand Herald the scale of the disaster and the risks at the site could delay rescue efforts.

What we know about the landslide at Mount Maunganui

Emergency workers and bystanders survey the scene after a landslide

A young girl is among those missing after a landslide hit a popular campsite south-east of Auckland.

“It could be days, and we appreciate that everybody is anxious and waiting for their loved ones, and for some answers, but we also have to be very careful,” he said.

The landslide occurred after heavy rains soaked much of the North Island’s east coast this week and caused widespread damage.

Roads remain closed in some of the worst-hit areas, making some North Island towns inaccessible by land.

The civil defence organisation 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.

In an interview with ABC News Radio, Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale said, unfortunately, rescuers had not recovered anyone overnight, but efforts were continuing.

“It’s emotional, there are several families here waiting for news,” he said.

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A screengrab from a mobile phone video shows an exposed hillside after a landslide.

Aerial video captures aftermath of a landslide at New Zealand’s Mount Maunganui campsite.

RadioNZ reported that a large number of emergency vehicles remained at the campsite in the tourist spot of Mount Maunganui last night, with cordons still in place.

Earthmoving equipment had been brought in to claw away the layers of debris to try and locate the missing, emergency services said in a statement.

Another large digger was seen entering the site first thing this morning.

Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell told RadioNZ the search was still being treated as a rescue operation this morning.

He said checks of the site’s CCTV and whether campers had left the site without telling anyone were ongoing.

A landslide with open earth and fallen trees.

A young girl is still missing after a landslide at a campground in Mount Maunganui buried infrastructure and vehicles. (ABC News: Fletcher Yeung)

Young girl among missing people

A young girl was reported missing yesterday.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand deputy national commander Megan Stiffler described the scene as a “complex and high-risk environment”.

Ms Stiffler said specialist officers had been brought in to help with the search.

Helicopters and search-and-rescue dogs also joined the operation at Mount Maunganui, also known as Mauao.

The region is a major summer tourist draw, with hikers heading up the mountain and thousands lured by its white-sand beaches.

The landslide hit campervans and a shower block, and spread into a heated pool complex on Thursday morning.

Two ambulances are parked alongside a large incident support truck at night

Emergency services remained at the scene throughout Thursday night. (Reuters: Aaron Gillions)

Eyewitnesses described panic and fear caused by the landslide, which one Australian tourist said left him fearing for his life.

A Maori guardian of the site, Takiri Butler, said late last night that more family members of those missing had arrived at the site throughout the day.

She said that the site was likely to be closed for some time.

“Hug your babies,”

she said.

Elsewhere, police said they found the bodies of two people who were missing after a landslide engulfed a house in the suburb of Papamoa, in the Bay of Plenty region, yesterday.

A third person was missing after a vehicle was washed away north of Auckland on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government was doing all it could to support those affected.

“We are standing with these local communities in the response — and we will stand with them in the recovery too,” he added on X.

Trees and debris surround two cars and a house after a flood

The wild weather has damaged properties across much of the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. (Fire and Emergency New Zealand/Handout via Reuters)

Mr Luxon flew to Thames on Friday morning and was travelling around the Coromandel peninsula, surveying the damage and speaking with people who had been affected.

Transport authorities said roads had been closed in the areas of Northland, Bay of Plenty and Waikato, while local authorities said road damage cut off some small communities.

Thousands of people remain without power in the area.

New Zealand’s MetService said strong winds and thunderstorms are forecast for the affected area this weekend.