AT least five people have died and two Brits are feared missing after an eruption at the White Island volcano in New Zealand this morning. Eighteen of an estimated 50 people were rescued from the island, with police saying they no longer expect to find anymore survivors. The volcano suddenly erupted at 2.11pm local time, […]
AT least five people have died and two Brits are feared missing after an eruption at the White Island volcano in New Zealand this morning.
Eighteen of an estimated 50 people were rescued from the island, with police saying they no longer expect to find anymore survivors.
The volcano suddenly erupted at 2.11pm local time, sending a 12,000ft plume of smoke and rock into the air.
Images showed one group of people trekking across the centre of the volcano’s crater just a minute before the eruption.
Twenty three people were brought off the island, of whom five later died.
Survivors of the blast were taken to hospitals on New Zealand’s North Island, many with severe burns.
Two Brits, a 67-year-old man from London and an 80-year-old woman from England, are listed as among those still missing on a website set up by the New Zealand Red Cross, the Evening Standard reported.
A 27-year-old woman from London was also earlier listed as missing, but her family later confirmed her to be safe, according to the Standard.
The site was launched at the request of New Zealand police, although all information on the site is being submitted by concerned members of the public.
Police said people from overseas can also call +64 9105 105 to submit information about friends or family who might have been on White Island at the time of the blast.
Among those listed on the site as currently missing are people from Australia, Singapore, China, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, and Burma.
Around half of those on the island are thought to have been from Australia.
A statement released New Zealand police just after midnight local time said that, during reconnaissance flights over the island, “no signs of life had been seen at any point”.
“Police believe that anyone who could have been taken from the island alive was rescued at the time of the evacuation,” it read.
“Based on the information we have, we do not believe there are any survivors on the island.”
It added that officials were working “urgently” to determine how many people had died, and that the military would be deploying drones to survey the area at first light.
Speaking at a press conference, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said: “I know that there will be a huge amount of anxiety for those who had loved ones on the island at the time.
“I can assure them police are doing everything they can.”
She is now reported to have arrived in the area and to be meeting with local officials.
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A scientific monitoring camera appeared to capture a group of tourists walking through the volcano’s crater at 2:10pm – just one minute before the eruption.
The camera – which takes a new still image every ten minutes – did not take another clear shot, and is believed to have been buried in rubble from the blast.
A fleet of rescue helicopters was dispatched to send emergency workers to the area in the hope of finding survivors.
Rescuers were able to reach the shore by boat, but National Operation Commander Deputy Commissioner John Tims told a press conference the island remained too dangerous to go further.
He added that there remained a possibility of further eruptions.
A statement from New Zealand’s national police force said: “We are continuing to work as quickly as possible, through a number of channels of information, to confirm exact numbers of those involved, including those who remain on the island.
“Both New Zealanders and overseas tourists are believed to involved.
“Police is currently taking advice from GeoNet experts, who have advised that due to the current risk environment, emergency services remain unable to access the island.
“We are reassessing as information and advice is received, however Police will not be in a position to access the island tonight.”
It added that a no-fly zone is now in place at five nautical miles around the island.
Dr. Jessica Johnson, a volcanologist at the University of East Anglia, told CNN: “There is a chance of another eruption of similar size … and potentially bigger.”
She also told the Guardian that the eruption was “unfortunate but not completely unexpected” because “levels of activity [in the volcano]… have been relatively high since September.”
New Zealand Cruise Association CEO Kevin O’Sullivan has said that between 30 and 38 passengers from Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas were on the island at the time of the eruption.
In a post on Facebook, White Island Tours operator Calvin Kingi wrote that his company’s group got off the island just in time.
“White Island just erupted as we left, we have our work mates and a tour still on the island, I hope they okay,” he said.
Tourist Michael Schade gave a harrowing account of the blast – saying his tour boat left the island just 30 minutes earlier.
He wrote on Twitter: “Woman my mom tended to was in critical condition but seemed strong by the end.
“The helicopters on the island looked destroyed.
“This is so hard to believe. Our whole tour group were literally standing at the edge of the main crater not 30 minutes before.”
Authorities asked people on North Island, one of New Zealand’s two main islands, to avoid areas nearest the volcano – about 30 miles from the mainland.
The “short-lived eruption” threw an ash plume about 12,000ft high, New Zealand’s geoscience agency GNS Science said in a statement.
Skydiver Guillaume Calmelet was preparing for a tandem dive ahead of the eruption, and saw a plume developing above the volcano as he leapt from the plane.
“This big white cloud came out of nowhere,” he told the New Zealand Herald.
“We’ve never seen anything like that.”
White Island, northeast of the North Island town of Tauranga, is regularly visited by small groups of tourists.
The cone volcano is New Zealand’s most active and about 70 per cent of it is below sea level.
Twelve people were killed on the island in 1914 when it was being mined for sulphur.
Part of a crater wall collapsed and a landslide destroyed the miners’ village and the mine itself.
The remains of buildings from another mining enterprise in the 1920s are now a tourist attraction.
The island became a private scenic reserve in 1953, and daily tours allow more than 10,000 people to visit the volcano every year.
White Island is also known by the indigenous Maori name Whakaari.
More to follow…
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