Foreign News
How a shootout ended a four-year search for a New Zealand bushman and his three children
On 11 September 2021, Tom Phillips and his three children went missing for the first time.
His Toyota Hilux was found parked below a tide line at a beach near his parents’ home in Marokopa on New Zealand’s North Island. Police launched a massive search operation by land, sea and air.
Less than three weeks later, the family returned home, with the father claiming they had been on a camping trip.
Then, on 12 December that year, they vanished again. Aside from a few chance sightings and grainy frames of CCTV footage, the bushman and his three children had not been seen since.
That was, until the early hours of Monday morning, when police responding to a report of an attempted burglary entered into a shootout that resulted in Phillips’ death, ending a four-year manhunt.
Many questions about his disappearance remain, including why he took his children and disappeared into New Zealand’s harsh wilderness, and whether he was able to evade capture for so long by having help.
When Phillips returned home for the first time in 2021, he was charged with wasting police resources. The search effort over the harsh, unforgiving landscape of the western Waitomo region had cost New Zealand authorities hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Police did not launch a fresh search the second time he and his three children – Ember, Maverick, and Jayda, aged five, seven and eight, respectively, at the time – went missing.
When he failed to appear at a court appearance on 12 January 2022, police issued a warrant for his arrest.
Phillips returned to his family home alone at night to collect supplies on 9 February that year. He was then not seen for more than a year.
Police have said in the past they believed Phillips took his children – now aged nine, 10 and 12 – over a custody dispute with their mother, though he never offered any explanation as to why he had done this.
Phillips was known to be a bushman who had some survival training. Locals in Marokopa have said he was someone who wanted to be off the grid and had not been on any social media platforms.
Police believed he and his children had survived out in the dense wilderness surrounding Marokopa. But it seems Phillips and his children could not survive in the bush on their wits alone.
There was a string of sightings around Kawhia between August and November 2023, including multiple alleged robberies, as well as at a hardware store and on quad bikes.
CCTV footage captured around that time appeared to show Phillips and one of his children – both wearing camouflage and masks over their faces – attempting to break into a store in Piopio, south-west of Marokopa, police said.
When Phillips was shot on Monday, police said they found multiple firearms and other loot on his quad bike.
Police have previously said they believed Phillips was being aided in his evasion by others. When he was suspected of a bank robbery in Te Kuiti, a small town in the Waitomo region, police said there was an accomplice.
Fewer than 100 people live in the tight-knit community of Marokopa. While there was no suggestion that his family had assisted him, given the custody dispute, there have been questions about whether someone who knew him was helping him remain hidden or knew of his whereabouts.
In June 2024, police issued an NZ$80,000 (£37,200) reward for information that might lead to the location of Phillips and his three children. The deadline expired without any breakthroughs.
They were next seen that October. A group of teenage pig hunters who had been trekking through the bush around Marokopa spotted them and filmed the brief encounter on their phones.
In the grainy footage, Phillips could be seen leading his children through the rugged terrain, all wearing camouflaged clothing, raincoats and large backpacks.
New Zealand media reported that the teenagers had briefly spoken to one of their children to ask if anyone knew they were there. The child had replied “only you” and kept walking, the father of one of the teenagers told New Zealand’s 1News.
The sighting prompted an unsuccessful three-day search involving police and army helicopters. Police said last month that they felt an aggressive search was the wrong approach, as they said Phillips was armed and considered dangerous.
He was not seen again until late August this year, when he and one of his children were captured on CCTV allegedly breaking into a store in Piopio, making off with grocery items.
It was Piopio he returned to on Monday morning. It was at about 02:30 local time (14:30 GMT on Sunday) that police were called to a report of an attempted burglary at a rural farm supply shop there, which police believe Phillips had unsuccessfully targeted before.
A quad bike carrying two people was seen heading towards Marokopa. Police laid spikes along the road and, when these stopped the quad bike, officers said they were met with gunfire.
Police said the first officer to reach the scene was shot in the head and he remains in a serious condition. A second officer returned fire and Phillips died at the scene, police said.
The child who was with him was unharmed and provided police with information that led them to the other two children, who were at a remote campsite in the bush between Marokopa and Te Kuiti in near-freezing conditions, police said.
The children – whose wellbeing had been the top concern in New Zealand throughout their disappearance – are now being cared for by the authorities.
[BBC]
North Korea has cancelled the Pyongyang marathon for unspecified reasons, a tour agency linked to the event has said.
British-owned Koryo Tours, which describes itself as the official partner of the marathon, said on Monday that it had received notice of the cancellation from North Korea’s athletics association.
A message it attributed to the association said the marathon was being cancelled “due to some reasons”.
The annual event was established in 1981 to celebrate the birth of North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il Sung. The 2026 race was set to take place on 5 April.
The message, purportedly from the North Korea athletics association’s general secretary, thanked “all the Elite Marathoners and Amateur Runners of the world who are interested in Pyongyang International Marathon”.
The message gave no further explanation on what the reasons for the cancellation were.
Koryo Tours said it understood the decision was final and had been taken “at a level above the organisers of the event itself”.
It said it would be seeking clarification on the circumstances surrounding the decision.
The tour company added that neither organisers nor event partners were involved in making the decision, and said it recognised “this announcement will be disappointing to many runners who had already registered or were planning to participate”.
Koryo Tours, based in Beijing, China, offers several marathon packages to foreigners, departing from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang.
Packages start from €2,190 ($2,529; £1,894) for 2.5 nights in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, including a marathon place and “highlights” of the capital and tickets were sold out this year, according to the agency’s website.
It said all deposits paid will be returned and runners have the option to retain their deposit for a future event or North Korea tour.
A date for the 2027 marathon has not yet been set.
The event had only returned last year after it was suspended for five consecutive years due to the Covid pandemic.
It is open to both amateur and some professional athletes and offers several race distances – 5km (3.1 miles), 10km (6.2 miles), half marathon (21.1km; 13.1 miles) or full marathon (42.2km; 26.2 miles).
[BBC]
Twenty-three people have been rescued by helicopter crews in Ontario, Canada, after the ice shelf they were standing on broke, sending the group floating into Lake Huron.
Ontario Provincial Police said on social media that the rescue began around noon (16:00 GMT) on Sunday after “winds and current moved the ice shelf away from shore” approximately 2km (1.2 miles).
The rescue involved two helicopters making multiple trips to pluck people off the shelf as it continued to fracture into more pieces in the Owen Sound, about 200km north-west of Toronto.
One member of the group said that he only realised the ice he was fishing on had detached from shore when he noticed that his GPS showed him moving.
Members of the rescued group described harrowing moments, with several of them becoming partially submerged in the cold waters as they sought out the thickest ice on the floe, or sheet.
“I looked at my GPS. We were moving,” fisherman Kevin Fox wrote, identifying himself on Facebook as one of those who were caught up in the incident. “I turned around and saw waves forming behind us.”
He said that he and several others started running towards a route that they hoped still connected to shore.
“We decided to run toward one side of the bay, but when we got there the ice had already separated from shore. We turned and ran the other way, but the ice there was breaking apart too,” he wrote.
Some started phoning their families, said Fox, adding: “It’s something I will never forget – seeing grown men crying while saying goodbye to the people they love.”
Fellow fisherman Alfie How told The Owen Sound Sun Times that they eventually “just sat down as a group and said this could be the end”.
Fox told the paper that the rescue occurred during high wind, and the group was concerned that the helicopters would not be able to fly.
“It was being eroded,” Fox said. “It kept getting smaller, and smaller.”
Police say several members of the group suffered hypothermia, but that everyone was expected to make a full recovery.
“Great teamwork and a quick response by all involved,” police added.
Last month in the US state of Vermont, police rescued a group of ice skaters who had also become trapped on floating ice.
Using kayaks and ferry boats, rescuers brought the group back from the icy Lake Champlain.
Officials warn that ice fishing conditions can change rapidly during the relatively warm daylight hours.
[BBC]
At least 23 people have been killed in Nairobi after heavy rain overnight caused severe flooding in Kenya’s capital city.
Police said about 30 people had been rescued but many others drowned after being swept into rivers – some have been electrocuted.
Kenya’s military has been deployed to help people trapped inside their cars as police described widespread damage to properties as well as road closures.
Several flights bound for Nairobi Airport had to be cancelled or diverted to the coastal city of Mombasa.
“The torrential rains have led to significant flooding, unfortunately resulting in 23 fatalities so far, the destruction of property, road closures, and the displacement of residents,” police said in a statement on Saturday afternoon.
[BBC]
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