New Zealand volcano death toll rises to 16

A person who was being treated in hospital after the eruption of New Zealand’s White Island volcano has died, bringing the official death toll to 16, police said on Sunday.

The victim, who has not been identified, died in Australia after being repatriated for treatment.

About 20 people remain in intensive care with severe burns.

Meanwhile, recovery teams returned to the volcanic island on Sunday but were unable to locate two remaining bodies, the BBC reports.

Eight police search and rescue personnel were deployed for 75 minutes to an area in which at least one of the bodies was believed to be. “We have found no further bodies in that area,” Deputy Police Commissioner, Mike Clement told journalists.

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Police said they remained committed to retrieving the bodies and that police and military divers would continue to search the waters around White Island, also known by its Maori name of Whakaari. On Saturday, teams faced contaminated waters and poor visibility after one body was spotted in the water.

“There was every chance that the second body was also in the sea,” Mr. Clement said, “but we wanted to clear the area today [Sunday], which is effectively what today’s exercise was about.”

There had been no further significant activity in White Island since last Monday’s eruption but the risk of eruption remained, said Geoff Kilgour, a volcanologist with GNS Science.

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