Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned Australians to 'prepare for some difficult news' in the days ahead as police revealed they did not expect to find any more survivors from a devastating volcanic eruption in New Zealand.
A camera operated by New Zealand's science agency GeoNet at the crater's rim, set to take pictures every 10 minutes, showed a string of people visiting the crater at 2.10pm on Monday. The volcano erupted one minute later, at 2.11pm.
Rescue helicopters and other aircraft carried out a number of reconnaissance flights over the island after the eruption, police said, but it was too dangerous for rescuers to land."Police believe that anyone who could have been taken from the island alive was rescued at the time of the evacuation."Police working urgently to confirm the exact number of those who have died..."
"We hope to know more in the morning, however we must prepare for some difficult news in the days ahead. Ovation of the Seas had been scheduled to sail to the capital Wellington on Monday night, but the company said it would instead remain in the Tauranga port until "we learn more about the situation.
Michael Schade, an engineering manager from San Francisco, was one of the tourists who made it off the island just before the eruption. The volcano, known as Whakaari, is New Zealand's most active cone volcano. It last experienced a small eruption in 2013.The GeoNet agency, which monitors volcanoes and earthquakes in New Zealand, had raised the alert level on White Island on November 18 from 1 to 2, on a scale where 5 represents a major eruption, noting an increase in sulfur dioxide gas, which originates from magma deep in the volcano.
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