Three injured after landslide sees Auckland house collapse

Three people are injured after a landslide caused a house to collapse in Auckland’s Manukau Heads just after midday today.

Emergency services responded to the Orua Bay location, with two Westpac helicopters attending the scene.

Speaking to media this afternoon, Fire and Emergency NZ’s Ron Devlin said: “The Āwhitu station turned out to a collapse on Orua Bay Rd, on arrival they found a property had crashed down a bank onto the beach.

“It was two people injured and a person unaccounted for in the property, and [they] turned out to be trapped.

“All three people were injured…all persons have now been rescued with two of them being removed to Middlemore Hospital for checks.”

Devlin said the response was “really well-coordinated”, involving FENZ, Police, St John, Westpac Helicopter and the Auckland International Airport Rescue Team.

“It was particularly difficult and highly technical as the trapped patient was actually about a metre below the tide line with an incoming tide, so you can imagine the difficulties that rescuers had in effecting that.”

Devlin said the rescue took about 40 minutes.

People in the area told 1News the house was rented out.

They said the people staying there at the time of the slip arrived yesterday from Australia.

Auckland Rescue Helicopters said earlier it is believed three patients were involved, with one person possibly in critical condition, one in a moderate condition, and the third receiving minor injuries.