Sawt Falasteen - New Zealand landslips kill at least two, others missing

Rescuers used heavy machinery to dig through the mass of earth that moved after heavy overnight rain in New Zealand's North Island.

Emergency workers retrieved two bodies from the remains of a buried home in the harbourside city of Tauranga, police said.

"Police are working to support their loved ones at this incredibly difficult time," a spokesperson said.

Multiple people were missing after a chunk of earth from Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcano, slid into a popular campsite nearby.

The region is a big tourist draw in summer, with hikers heading up the mountain and thousands lured by white sand beaches.

The mud smashed into a shower block, threw around camper vans, and spread into an adjoining heated pool complex.

Voices were briefly heard calling for help from beneath the rubble, witnesses and emergency officials said.

"Whilst the land's still moving there, they're in a rescue mission," Assistant Police Commissioner Tim Anderson told reporters at the scene.

- Girl among missing -

"I can't be drawn on numbers. What I can say is that it is single figures," Anderson said.

A young girl is among the missing, officials said.

A dozen family members watched the search for victims from across the road.

Visiting Canadian tourist Dion Siluch, 34, said he was having a massage at the now-evacuated Mount Hot Pools complex when the landslide hit.

"The whole room started shaking," he told AFP.

"When I walked out, there was a caravan in the pool, and there's a mudslide that missed me by about 30 feet," Siluch said.

"It was all very confusing. I wasn't sure if someone had driven off the road and into the pool. It took me a while to realise that the mountain had collapsed and had pushed everything into the pool."

- 'People screaming' -

Siluch said he had seen another landslip about an hour earlier but took little notice.

Police arrived by helicopter and told people to evacuate, he said.

People at the campsite had instantly tried to dig into the rubble and heard voices, Fire and Emergency commander William Pike told reporters.

"Our initial fire crew arrived and were able to hear the same," he said.

However, rescuers soon withdrew everyone from the site because of the risk of dangerous earth movements, the fire commander said.

Asked if voices had been heard since then, he said: "Not that I know of, no."

Hiker Mark Tangney saw people fleeing the camp and ran to help, the New Zealand Herald reported.

"I could just hear people screaming, so I just parked up and ran to help," he told the paper.

"I was one of the first there. There were six or eight other guys there on the roof of the toilet block with tools just trying to take the roof off because we could hear people screaming: 'Help us, help us, get us out of here'," Tangney said.

Later, the voices stopped, he said.

X.Habash--SF-PST