Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel

A vigil was held at a church in Tauranga on Friday night for a young boy who died in a Pāpāmoa landslide.

Two people, including the boy, had been confirmed dead in Welcome Bay, while six people were known to be missing in a separate landslide at the base of Mt Maunganui.

St Peter's Anglican Church musical director Chalium Poppy said the boy - who died with a relative in a house on Welcome Bay Road - was due to come to a piano lesson at the Mt Maunganui church on Thursday.

"It's all just very raw, like it's just happening, there are still people that are missing," he said.

"We're just responding the only way that… the church knows how, and that's to sort of open up our doo

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