Search called off and focus shifts to recovery after human remains found
PUBLISHED : 24 Jan 2026 at 12:54
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A rescue worker walks near a section of a cliff that gave way at the scene of a landslide triggered by heavy rains on Jan 22 near Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. (Photo: Reuters)
There will probably be no survivors of a landslide that struck a busy campground on the North Island of New Zealand, police said on Saturday after human remains were found overnight.
Six people, including two teenagers, remained unaccounted for after heavy rains triggered the landslide on Thursday at Mount Maunganui on the island’s east coast, bringing down soil and rubble at the site in the city of Tauranga, crowded with families on summer holidays.
Rescue efforts have ceased and a recovery operation is under way, said police Superintendent Tim Anderson.
“The likelihood of someone being alive is highly unlikely according to the experts, but you could never rule that out,” Anderson told reporters at Mount Maunganui.
No signs of life have been detected from the rubble since voices were heard by first responders on Thursday, police have said. The youngest of the missing is aged 15.
It is “devastating to receive the news we have all been dreading,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said in a post on X. “To the families who have lost loved ones — every New Zealander is grieving with you.”
Luxon visited the site on Friday and met affected families.
Thirty-five crew, assisted by heavy machinery, were removing debris on Saturday after a partial slip in a section of the search area on Friday evening, Fire and Emergency New Zealand said.
Heavy rain forecast for the area on Saturday could present further challenges, including having “to withdraw from the slip area for their safety”, Fire and Emergency official Megan Stiffler said in a statement.
The heavy rain this week unleashed another landslide in the neighbouring suburb of Papamoa, killing two.