A landslide smashed into a campsite in rain-swept New Zealand on Thursday, leaving multiple people including a child missing under tonnes of mud.
The slip occurred at 9.30am local time (8.30pm Wednesday GMT) at the base of an extinct volcano on the country's North Island.
Videos showed a shower block and several campervans crushed and buried in rubble at Mount Maunganui, about 142 miles south-east of Auckland.
Voices were briefly heard calling for help from beneath the rubble, witnesses and emergency officials said, but they soon went quiet. A child is among the missing.
"Our initial fire crew arrived and were able to hear the same," New Zealand's fire and emergency commander William Pike said.
"Shortly after our initial crew arrived, we withdrew everyone from the site due to possible movement and slip."
Credit: Reuters
Mr Pike said no sign of life has been detected since. No one has been rescued so far and the campsite remains closed.
Tim Anderson, the assistant police commissioner, said the number of people missing was in the "single figures".
A witness, Mark Tangney, told the New Zealand Herald that he had rushed to help those trapped by the landslide. He had set out on a hike when he heard the screams.
"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'."
Mr Tangney said they "went hard for about half an hour and after 15 minutes, the people that were trapped, we couldn't hear them anymore".
After 30 minutes, the police called off the rescue saying it "was too dangerous".
An Australian tourist who saw the landslide coming down while he was sitting in a pool, told broadcaster TVNZ: "I'm still shaking… I turned around and had to jump out of my seat and just run."
Heavy rains have ravaged large parts of the North Island, with the country's national weather service issuing a rare "threat to life" red warning in several regions.
Some areas have received a month's worth of rain in 12 hours. People living in low-lying affected areas have been ordered to evacuate.
Another landslide hit a house in the nearby Bay of Plenty area. Two people escaped, but two others were still missing, according to Mr Anderson.
Further north near the town of Warkworth, a man remains missing after floodwaters swept him from a road on Wednesday morning.
New Zealand's prime minister Christopher Luxon urged residents in affected areas to heed safety advice during the extreme conditions.
"Extreme weather continues to cause dangerous conditions across the North Island. Right now, the government is doing everything we can to support those impacted," he posted on social media.
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