By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A New Zealand firefighter is missing after a house slid down a hill in a beachside town near Auckland, as Cyclone Gabrielle pounds the country causing flooding, landslides and huge waves.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand chief executive Kerry Gregory told media in Auckland on Tuesday that a volunteer fire brigade was investigating a flooded house in Muriwai when a landslide hit the property, trapping two firefighters.
He said one of the firefighters was rescued and was in a critical condition, but that a search for the second firefighter had to be call off because it was too dangerous to continue.
Gabrielle, had been sitting 100 km (62 miles) northeast of Auckland over some small islands and is now moving southwest.
The cyclone has brought heavy rain, flooding and gale force winds across the North Island and forced the evacuation of many beach settlements. Many people are without electricity, roads are closed and some towns have been cut off.
States of emergency are in place in Auckland and seven other regions.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Alex Richardson)
