New Zealand is ‘full of grief”, the prime minister has said, after landslides tore through a house and busy campground, leaving two dead and at least six victims still missing.

Police said emergency crews were still searching for at least six people, including two teenagers, believed missing beneath the debris of a landslide which struck a Mount Maunganui campsite on Thursday morning. Police were attempting to contact another three people. Families enjoying the summer school holiday were among the campers. Recreational vehicles and at least one structure were crushed, images showed.

During a visit to the region on Friday, prime minister Christopher Luxon said he had met with some of the grieving families, who had told him they were feeling well supported during an “absolutely tragic” time.

“New Zealand is full of grief today … and grieves with them,” he said.

The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, posted on X that one of the dead from the landslides was a Chinese citizen.

“Our hearts are with the impacted families at this difficult moment,” he said. “Deeply appreciate the assistance provided promptly by Mfat and NZ Police when we reached out yesterday.”

The first landslide hit a house in the community of Welcome Bay on New Zealand’s North Island at 4.50am, police said. Two people escaped the house, and the bodies of two who were trapped inside were recovered hours later, the emergency management minister, Mark Mitchell, said.

Later the same morning, emergency services were called to a second slide at the base of nearby Mount Maunganui, also on the North Island. The rubble hit Beachside Holiday Park in a town named after the extinct volcano. Images showed vehicles, travel trailers and an amenities block crushed by debris.

New Zealand authorities are facing questions about why people were not evacuated after reports of a landslip at the campsite earlier in the day.

“We’ve heard there was possibly a small slip where people did move away from the site,” local Tauranga mayor Mahé Drysdale said.

“Those questions will be answered.”

Drysdale told Radio New Zealand that search-and-rescue teams had continued at the campground through the night but no one else had been found.

“That’s really hard, and we’re here with the families and as you can imagine, just that uncertainty of where they are and when we might have a result is pretty hard,” Drysdale said.

He said the area remained unstable. Mitchell told Radio New Zealand it was a challenging and difficult environment. He said police were checking if some campers may have left without informing authorities.

The landslide happened after heavy rains soaked much of the North Island’s east coast earlier this week and caused widespread damage.

NZ Civil Defence warned on Thursday morning that landslides can happen without warning, and advised the public to keep an eye out for rockfalls or sinking land at the bottom of slopes, as well at stuck doors and windows, or gaps in window frames.

“Get out of the path of the landslide quickly. Evacuate if the building you are in is in danger,” the agency posted on Facebook.

Roads remained closed in some of the worst-hit areas, making some North Island towns inaccessible by land. The civil defence organisation in Tairawhiti District said in a social media post that people were walking over landslides to collect water and food from welfare hubs and warned against this because of the risk of more landslides.

Police superintendent Tim Anderson said the number of people missing was in the “single figures”.

No survivors or bodies had been recovered by late Thursday from the Mount Maunganui rubble, where dogs were being used to sniff for human victims, Mitchell said.

“There was a shower block and a, sort of, combined shower block-kitchen block and there were people using that at the time the slide came through and they are some of the ones that we’re working hard to try to recover now,” Mitchell told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Further north near Warkworth, a man was missing after flood waters swept him from a road Wednesday morning as heavy rain lashed large swathes of the North Island, a police statement said.

Luxon urged residents in affected areas to heed local authorities’ 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,” Luxon posted on social media.

Fire and Emergency NZ commander, William Pike, said there were some signs of life immediately after the Mount Maunganui slide.

“Members of the public … tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices,” Pike told reporters. “Our initial fire crew arrived and … were able to hear the same. Shortly after our initial crew arrived, we withdrew everyone from the site due to possible movement and slip.”

Australian tourist Sonny Worrall said he was lazing in a hot pool in the campground when he heard, then saw the landslide.

“I looked behind me and there’s a huge landslide coming down. And I’m still shaking from it now,” Worrall told New Zealand’s 1News news service. “I turned around and I had to jump out from my seat as fast as I could and just run.”

He looked back to see the rubble carrying a travel trailer behind him.

“It was like the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Worrall said.

With Associated Press and Reuters

• New Zealand
• Asia Pacific
• news