The official death toll from New Zealand’s White Island volcano eruption rose to eight after two more people died in hospital, police said today. The bodies of another eight people are believed to be on the island.

Many more victims are battling to survive after suffering horrific burns at the popular tourist attraction, which police said is still too dangerous to land on.

A total of 47 day-trippers and guides hailing from Australia, the United States, Britain, China, Germany, Malaysia and New Zealand
were on the island when the blast occurred on Monday.

Intensifying fears of another eruption have frustrated efforts to recover. Seismologists said there is 50 to 60 per cent chance of another eruption on the island, which lies semi-submerged 30 miles off the coast.