Just under a week after the volcanic eruption on New Zealand's White Island, the death toll has risen to 18. The New Zealand police said that an Australian who had been flown to a Sydney hospital after the accident had died of life-threatening injuries.
The police said seven deaths were identified, including four Australians, two U.S. residents who are permanent residents of Australia, and a New Zealand tourist guide who was traveling with the tourists on the volcanic island on Monday at the time of the outbreak.
According to the authorities, 26 injuries are still being treated in hospitals in New Zealand and Australia. Most of them continued to be in mortal danger due to severe burns. The burns were so severe that, according to medical experts, New Zealand had to import skin from abroad for transplants.
Divers seek visibility from zero to two meters
According to the authorities, there were also two missing among the 18 dead whose bodies have not yet been found. Divers continued their searches under difficult conditions. After a search on the island was unsuccessful, the police returned to the sea on Sunday afternoon (local time) to continue searching in the water. The visibility under water is between "zero and two meters". The water around the island is polluted. The divers had to wear protective suits and were rinsed with fresh water every time they appeared.
Vice Chief Mike Clement said the bodies may have been washed into the sea from the stream they were last seen in on Monday. He understood how difficult it was for the relatives that the bodies could not yet be recovered. But the police still have hope. "We don't give up so easily," said Clement.
According to scientists who monitor seismological activity on the island, the likelihood of a new eruption decreased over the weekend - but the risk remained. Accordingly, danger level two was maintained, according to which the volcano was in a "moderate to increased state of unrest with the potential for eruption".
New Zealand authorities initially published the names of eight fatalities, including three adolescents aged 13 to 16. The oldest victim known to date was 53 years old. The people were on a sightseeing tour on the volcanic island. This is visited by 10,000 day trippers every year. The tours advertise, among other things, with a look inside the earth.
Minute of silence on Monday
New Zealand government leader Jacinda Ardern announced a minute's silence for the victims of the volcanic eruption on Monday. "Together we can show our grief to those who have died or been injured," she said. The minute of silence should therefore take place at 2:11 p.m. (local time; 2:11 a.m.CET), exactly one week after the outbreak.
On Friday, elite soldiers recovered six lives in a high-risk operation. Despite the danger of another eruption, they entered the volcanic island and brought the bodies by helicopter to a naval ship off the island.
At the time of the eruption on Monday, a total of 47 tourists and travel guides had been on the island in the Bay of Plenty about 50 kilometers off the coast of the North Island of New Zealand. Among them were four Germans who, according to the Federal Foreign Office, sustained injuries.
The island nation of New Zealand lies on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, the most geologically active zone on earth. The volcano on White Island has been increasingly active again for some time, but boats with excursionists still drove there. Only trained guides were allowed to enter the island. The privately owned island is now completely closed as a death zone. It was the first fatal outbreak since 1914 when ten miners were killed.