Children are among multiple people feared dead in a landslip at a New Zealand holiday park after unprecedented rainfall, with an Australian tourist revealing how he fled to safety.

Land gave way above the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park at around 9.30a, on Thursday, crushing campervans and a shower-toilet block.

A rescue operation is underway, with officials confirming several people are unaccounted for.

The precise number has not been shared, though police say it is in the “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.

Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcano on the coast of the Bay of Plenty city of Tauranga, is a tourist hotspot, hosting one of New Zealand’s most popular beaches and well-loved walking trails.

Two other people are missing after a slip just east of Tauranga, at Welcome Bay.

The incidents followed Tauranga’s heaviest single day of rainfall on record, with 270mm falling in the 24 hours to 9am – equivalent to three months of average rainfall.

Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman William Pike said the first people on the scene heard calls for help from inside the landslip.

“Members of the public … tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices,” he said.

“Our initial fire crew arrived and were able to hear the same.”

‘Scariest thing in my life’

Australian tourist Sonny Worrall, from Newcastle, said he was “still shaking” after jumping out of a spa bath to avoid the rushing earth.

“I heard this huge tree crack and all this dirt come off behind me.

“I look behind me and there’s a huge landslide coming down. I’m still shaking from it now.

“I had to jump out from my seat as fast as I could and just run and then I dived across the other pool.

“Looking behind me, there was a caravan coming right behind me. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”

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.

Mount Maunganui is a tourist hotspot, hosting one of New Zealand’s most popular beaches and well-loved walking trails.

The tropical storm was forecast by meteorologists MetService, which issued a rare red weather warning for a “threat to life” in several regions.

The big wet extended across huge swathes of North Island, beginning in Northland on Wednesday.

Flooding in Oakura, in Northland, was described by residents as the worst in a half-century, while parts of Tairawhiti, the North Island’s eastern cape, are underwater.

A family of seven spent several “absolutely terrifying” hours on the roof of their Te Araroa home after clambering on in pitch black amid rising floodwaters.

“My children were screaming and crying, and we were all in shock … I was completely distressed and kept begging for a helicopter,” Huia Ngatai told the NZ Herald.

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.

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 $A8 billion in damage.

Two search and rescue experts were among those killed as they scoured a property in Auckland’s west coast.