Police said a 15-year-old was the youngest person unaccounted for after a chunk of Mount Maunganui ploughed into holidaymakers Thursday, smashing a shower block, camper vans and caravans. Battered vehicles were carted away after being pulled out of the mud. Voices could be heard calling for help from beneath the rubble just after the mudslide, which struck the tourist spot following heavy rain that lashed a large swathe of New Zealand’s North Island.
But nothing has been heard since then, witnesses and emergency officials say. A team of search and rescue personnel, contractors with mechanical excavators, and police sniffer dogs worked through the night and into the following day in search of possible survivors. At one point in the search, an AFP reporter at the scene saw the diggers call a halt to their work.
A police photographer was called in, and a hearse was later seen leaving the scene. Emergency services declined to discuss the recovery of any bodies, saying it would be insensitive to families. About two dozen family members watched the excavations from across the road. “We have six people that we know aren’t accounted for,” Assistant Police Commissioner Tim Anderson told reporters at the scene.
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