Six bodies were taken off the volcano in a four-hour recovery mission on Friday, with two further bodies still to be recovered.
“Today was all about returning them to their loved ones,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a media conference in Whakatane, the mainland coastal town where about 100 family and local community members prayed and sang together on Friday.
Deputy police commissioner Mike Clements said the retrieval plan was supported by the victims’ relatives, many of whom boarded a tour boat to attend a prayer session 1km off the island before the recovery mission started.
One of the two bodies to be recovered has previously been seen in the water, but rescuers will not return to the island on Saturday.
Police said they would look at the next possible steps, adding: “Planning will allow us to return to the island to conduct further land-based searches for the remaining deceased, as the environment on and around the island allows.”
A team of eight from the New Zealand Defence Force started a retrieval operation from the island from first light on Friday, despite ongoing warnings of further activity from the volcano.
The team, wearing protective suits and using breathing apparatus owing to the threat of toxic gases, recovered six bodies which were then transferred via helicopter to a navy ship, the HMNZS Wellington, and taken to…
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