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December 11, 2019

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2 Chinese injured in NZ volcano eruption

TWO Chinese nationals were among those injured in New Zealand volcanic eruption on the White Island on Monday, the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand confirmed yesterday.

The two Chinese nationals have been hospitalized, the embassy said in a statement, adding that the Chinese embassy has sent consular officials to the hospital to visit the injured Chinese national, and asked the New Zealand side to try their best to treat the injured and ensure their smooth recovery.

Meanwhile, search parties, fearing the volcano could erupt again, were unable to set foot on the White Island for eight people still missing yesterday, as police raised the death toll to six from the eruption a day earlier.

Police doubted whether any more survivors would be found. They said the latest victim died in hospital, who was among the more than 30 people injured in the eruption on the uninhabited island, a popular sightseeing excursion for tourists.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said reconnaissance flights showed no signs of life on the ash covered island, as eyewitnesses detailed the horrific burns suffered by those caught up in Monday’s eruption.

“The scale of this tragedy is devastating,” Ardern said in parliament. “To those who have lost or are missing family and friends, we share in your grief and sorrow and we are devastated.”

Police said 47 people were on White Island at the time of the eruption. Twenty-four came from Australia, nine from the United States, five from New Zealand, four from Germany, two each from China and Britain and one from Malaysia.

“I would strongly suggest that there is no one that has survived on the island,” police Deputy Commissioner John Tims said of the eight people still missing.

Most of the injured had suffered greater than 71 percent body surface burns, said Peter Watson, the government’s chief medical officer, warning that some might not survive.

Burns units across the South Pacific nation of 4.5 million are full to capacity, he added.

Missing tour guide

Relatives of missing tour guide Tipene Maangi held onto hopes that the 23-year-old man had survived, unsure whether he was among those in hospital

“We are all standing strong, standing together, holding the fort together, and like I said in prayer with faith ... we are just staying strong for one another until we actually know for sure,” said his aunt Ronnie.

Police said an investigation into the deaths on White Island had been launched but clarified it was not a criminal investigation.

New Zealand’s geological hazards agency GeoNet raised the alert level for the volcano in November because of an increase in volcanic activity. The volcano’s last fatal eruption was in 1914, when it killed 12 sulphur miners.

Yet, daily tours bring more than 10,000 visitors to the privately owned island every year, marketed as “the world’s most accessible active marine volcano.”

“I have to say that I’m very surprised to hear there were visitors there today, because scientists seem to have been well aware that White Island was entering a phase of heightened activity,” said Drexel University volcanologist Loÿc Vanderkluysen.

“I’ve been to White Island before, but I don’t think I would have been comfortable being there today.”

A crater rim camera owned and operated by GeoNet showed one group of people walking away from the rim inside the crater just a minute before the explosion.




 

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