Children among several missing after landslide at iconic spot | World | News
Several people are unaccounted for after a landslide destroyed parts of an iconic campground on New Zealand‘s North Island.
Children are believed to be among those missing after tents were flattened and a campervan was forced into a hot pool at the Mount Maunganui campground as emergency services search debris, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Tauranga City Council said on Thursday, Janauary 22, that the landslide that occurred at Mount Maunganui is an “evolving situation.”
“We are on site and working with emergency services to gather more information and provide support,” the council said.
“What we know is that several people are unaccounted for. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by this event and their loved ones.”
Parrents are waiting at a surf club for news on their children.
Minister Mark Mitchell told the New Zealand Herald that “young people” are among those unaccounted for.
The council said that most people have been evacuated from the Mount Holiday Park and the campground is closed until further notice.
Photographs shared by local media show uprooted trees strewn across streets, roads destroyed by floods and structures swept away in landlsides.
The area is reported to have experienced its, with two-and-a-half months’ worth of rain in falling in the 12 hours until 6am.
Tauranga recorded 198mm of rain over the period.
“In the past 24 hours, from 9am to 9am, 274mm of rain fell in Tauranga, making it the wettest day on record,” said Meteorologist Mmthapelo Makgabutlane, the New Zealand Hearald reported. “The records date back to 1910.”
Weather alerts have been lifted across the country, except for strong wind and heavy rain warnings in place for the Chatham Islands. The warnings will remain in place until 5am on Friday.
States of emergency have been issued for several parts of the region, including the Whangārei District, Hauraki District and Thames-Coromandel District.
