SIX people are still missing after a horror landslide at a campsite in New Zealand with desperate rescue operations now entering a second day.
A 15-year-old teen is the youngest person still unaccounted for with police confirming they are yet to find any signs of life after a wall of earth and rubble crashed down the side of Mount Maunganui
A landslide has ripped through a tourist campsite in New Zealand
Up to nine people were presumed missing as of Thursday morning with officers still trying to confirm the whereabouts of the three other campers.
Assistant Police Commissioner Tim Anderson believes they all managed to flee before the deluge of mud and debris tore through the camp.
Anderson was asked if there were any signs of life, to which he replied: “Not as of today but we live in hope.”
A man whose family member is still among the missing says he has been told the rescue operation is “pretty much just a recovery now”.
Nearby hiker Mark Tangney said people were screaming as the landslide smashed into the complex at around 9:30am, leaving dozens running for their lives.
He told the New Zealand Herald : “I could just hear people screaming, so I just parked up and ran to help.
“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’.”
Fire and Emergency New Zealand commander William Pike told local broadcaster RNZ that witnesses initially “heard some voices” from the rubble.
But the threat of another landslide hitting so soon after was too great with officials having to call off the rescue missions for some time.
Pike said: “Initially, when the first arriving crews arrived, there were some signs of life, but we actually withdrew our people just to make sure the slip didn’t move any further.”
Pictures show overturned vehicles and smashed up toilet blocks surrounded by rescuers, heavy machinery and search dogs in the aftermath.
An independent review into the volcano disaster is due to begin soon.
Mayor Mahé Drysdale and council chief executive Marty Grenfell said it is a “serious and significant incident of local, national and international importance”.
A second landslide also hit Welcome Bay in Papamoa and has left two people dead, according to Emergency management minister Mark Mitchell.
The day of disasters is said to have been caused by record-breaking rainfall in New Zealand’s North Island and heavy winds across the past few days.
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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