Several missing in landslide in New Zealand

Several people, including children, are missing after a landslide hit a campsite in Mount Maunganui, a popular tourist destination in New Zealand, after heavy rains. According to a Reuters report, the landslide occurred at around 9:30 am local time on Thursday (January 22). The campsite was reduced to rubble by a mudslide.
Meanwhile, the country’s rescue workers are searching for the missing, the news agency reported. Days of rain have severely damaged the entire east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. Thousands of people in the region are without power. People have been evacuated from many homes and roads have been closed.
Witness Nix Jack told Radio NZ that he heard a very loud noise while walking on the mountain. “I turned around and saw a section of the mountain collapsing on some infrastructure. There were some cars there, they were being moved. The rock fell on a bathroom unit, I think some people were taking a shower inside. Then it moved a campervan that had a family in it.”
Authorities told a news conference that hundreds of families staying at the campsite had been evacuated and emergency services were still searching for anyone who was there. District Police Superintendent Tim Anderson said fewer than 10 people were missing. “We may find someone alive,” he said.
Local media quoted Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell as saying that children were among the missing and that helicopters had been deployed to assist in search and rescue operations.
A second landslide hit Papamoa, a neighbour of Mount Maunganui. Police said two people were missing there. In another incident yesterday, another man was missing after his car was swept away north of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland.