Six people, including two teenagers, remained unaccounted for after heavy rains triggered Thursday’s landslide 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 underway, 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 posted 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.