Recovery teams have been unable to locate the final two bodies missing six days after a volcanic eruption on New Zealand’s White Island.
Eight police search and rescue staff were deployed for 75 minutes on Sunday to search an area where their information suggested one body possibly remained.
New Zealand’s deputy police commissioner Mike Clement told reporters the search was unsuccessful.
“But I can say we have found no further bodies in that area. I said earlier that there was one body in the sea and we are searching for that body, there’s every chance that the second body we are also searching for is also in the sea,”says Clement
But authorities are refusing to give up hope.
Clement says, “We don’t give up easily, there’s a whole lot of disappointed people back behind me with regard to what we’ve tried to do in the interests of returning people to loved ones. So they will go and have a bit of a debrief. But I tell you what they’ll be back up in no time in terms of their motivation to get the job done.”
On Saturday, divers faced contaminated waters and low visibility as they searched the waters surrounding the volcanic island and were unable to locate either of the missing persons.
Six bodies were successfully retrieved from the island on Friday by a New Zealand military team and taken to the mainland for disaster victim identification.
The death toll from the eruption rose to 16 on Sunday as one of those rescued from the island died in hospital.
But there are fears this number may rise further as more than two dozen people are still hospitalised across New Zealand and Australia, most with severe burns.
