Six people, including two teenagers, are missing after a landslide struck a busy campground on New Zealand’s North Island, as rescue teams continued searching through debris, authorities have said.

The landslide was triggered by heavy rain at about 9:30am local time on Thursday (20:30 GMT on Wednesday) at Mount Maunganui on the island’s east coast, sending soil and rubble crashing onto a campsite in the city of Tauranga crowded with families on summer holidays.

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Officials warned on Friday that the search for those missing could take several days, as unstable conditions continued to complicate rescue efforts at the site.

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told the New Zealand Herald that safety concerns meant teams would have to proceed slowly, despite the urgency of the operation.

“It could be days, and we appreciate that everybody is anxious and waiting for their loved ones, and for some answers, but we also have to be very careful,” Chambers said.

Emergency services said significant resources had been deployed to the area, with crews methodically removing debris and checking it piece by piece.

“We have 25 personnel working with contractors and their diggers and police dogs, as well as police operations to ensure that every inch of soil removed is worked through,” said David Guard, a fire and emergency official.

Authorities said those still unaccounted for include a 15-year-old, as police continued efforts to clarify the whereabouts of others potentially linked to the site.

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Police commander Tim Anderson told reporters that officers were attempting to make contact with three additional people, although early indications suggested they were not at the campground when the landslide struck.

He added that rescuers had not detected any further signs of life since first responders initially heard voices coming from beneath the debris on Thursday.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon travelled to the site on Friday, where he met families affected by the disaster. “They are grieving incredibly hard, and I know that New Zealand grieves with them,” he said.

Luxon said government funding would be provided once the full extent of the damage had been assessed.

Elsewhere, the heavy rain triggered another landslide in the neighbouring suburb of Papamoa, killing two people. One of those killed was a Chinese citizen, Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong said in a post on X on Friday.

Road closures remained in place across some of the hardest-hit areas, cutting off several towns by land.

Civil defence officials in the Tairawhiti district warned residents collecting emergency supplies of food and water not to cross landslides, saying this could trigger further movement of rock and soil.