New Zealand's military forces began a high-risk operation on volcanic White Island on Friday to recover bodies of eight people killed in an eruption this week, despite warnings that the island was still highly volatile.
Authorities have faced growing pressure from families of victims and the wider local community to recover the bodies as soon as possible. NZ police had previously refused to go in due to safety risks.
New Zealand defence force personnel are being deployed in the mission on Friday, along with assistance from the police and other agencies in the recovery mission that could take a few hours, police said.
White Island. Source: AAP
The mission was to be launched from a navy ship off the island.
The teams will wear protective gear, but the police gave no further details.
Six bodies could be seen and there would be "very limited" opportunity to search for the other two, Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement said on Thursday.
Tourists snap photos of the erupting volcano as their boat leaves the immediate area. Source: EPA
Dangerous conditions
Steam and mud are still jetting from the active vents on Whakaari, where seismic activity on the New Zealand island is reported "a factor of 12" times stronger than before Monday's deadly eruption.
Volcanic Geologist Graham Leonard from the New Zealand geophysical agency GNS said the possibility of another eruption was increasing.
“Whakaari-White Island volcano remains highly volatile and uncertain. Our experts estimate the likelihood of an eruption has moved to 50 to 60 per cent in the next 24 hours, up from 40 to 60 per cent yesterday,” he said.
New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has confirmed the recovery of the bodies is a priority.
"Ultimately, we are all in exactly the same place and wanting to make sure that as soon as possible, as soon as we can, that recovery operation begins,” she told reporters
“I can only imagine what families must be feeling now, as more information around the tremors is shared by scientists and as police continue to work through that recovery plan.
“Everyone is desperate to get those victims back. And so I know that will be a matter that the police are utterly focused on and that we are too.”
Video taken from inside a tour boat captured the moments after the volcano erupted. Source: YouTube
Police believe eight bodies lay around 300 metres from the crater, within 200 square metres, in small clusters.
It would take around 15 minutes to walk from the shore to the region where the retrieval would take place.
Nico Fournier, another GNS volcanologist, said flights around the island and monitoring equipment was feeding back real-time information to scientists.
He downplayed the risk to emergency workers from current conditions near the crater.
"Right now, what is preventing the rescue operation is really the risk of the eruption," he said.
"There are some environmental hazards, those are being worked on to be mitigated."
Mr Fournier made plain the risks of being in the region during an eruption.
"(You'd have) very fast ballistics, rocks going at incredibly high speed. That would be one sort of casualty," he said.
Australians Jason Griffiths (left), Karla Mathews and Richard Elzer were on the trip of a lifetime. Source: DFAT
"The ash would probably be quite high, depending on how much magma is in the eruption.
"It could go from a few hundred degrees to a higher temperature."
Mr Fournier said longer-term predictions on the volatility of the volcano were likely to be inaccurate.
"Right now we're focusing on the time window that is relevant and useful for the rescue operations," he said.
Burns victims
- to help build up tissue supplies which are expected to be wiped out by the New Zealand volcano eruption.
Victoria and New South Wales tissue banks have sent 20,000 square centimetres of skin to New Zealand hospitals, which has been used to treat the most severely injured in the disaster. 
More supplied have also been ordered from the United States.
A satellite image of White Island shows it a day after Monday's eruption. Source: AAP
After Monday's eruption on White Island, 31 people were taken to burns units across New Zealand.
Since then, eight people have died in the hospital including six Australians.
Five Australians have been brought home by the Royal Australian Air Force to be treated in Australian hospitals.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand's Director-General of Health says across the country, operating theatre timetables have been cleared to make room for the victims of the eruption.
"I understand some elective surgeries, as you can imagine, have been postponed to ensure that there is available theatre time and staffing to meet the high demand that has been put on them as a result of this tragic incident," he said.
“I just want to thank again the staff who have stepped up in this emergency. They have been fantastic and are providing excellent care for all those still requiring hospital care.”
