WELLINGTON, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The recovery team undertaking the operation to remove bodies despite eruption risk on New Zealand's White Island has landed on the island, police said Friday morning.
Police issued a statement saying: "This morning a blessing was held at sea with representatives of the families of the victims of the White Island volcanic eruption."
"The family representatives are returning to the mainland and the operation to recover the eight bodies on the island has commenced," it said.
New Zealand rescuers will recover the bodies from the White Island on Friday morning after a volcanic eruption on the island caused at least eight deaths, with another eight missing being presumed dead.
Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement told a press conference on Thursday that the whereabouts of six of the bodies are known, while two remain unaccounted for.
Rescuers would be wearing protective equipment and scientists would be on hand "offering minute by minute advice," Clement said.
A recovery plan has been devised and New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) personnel will attempt to recover the bodies from the volcano "at first light" on Friday, he said.
"We will make every effort to recover the bodies... from there, we'll move the bodies back to the mainland. I have to reiterate the risk has not gone; the risk remains present. The volcano, the weather, environmental factors... a lot has to go right for it to work," Clement said.
GNS scientist Graham Leonard said the volcanic island in the Eastern Bay of Plenty of New Zealand's North Island is highly volatile at the moment.
According to updated calculations provided by GeoNet volcanologists on Thursday afternoon, there is a 50 percent to 60 percent chance of another eruption occurring that could impact outside of the marked vent area within the next 24 hours.
Since around 4:00 a.m. Wednesday local time, the level of volcanic tremor has significantly increased at the island, said GeoNet on Wednesday.
Altogether 47 people were on the White Island at the time of the eruption on Monday. Currently 21 tourists remained in New Zealand hospitals nationwide.
Two Chinese nationals were among those injured, according to the Chinese embassy in New Zealand.
Ashley Bloomfield, director general of the New Zealand Ministry of Health, said at a press conference on Wednesday that the national multiple complex burn action plan had been activated. Many of the injured tourists are said to have more than 30 percent of body burnt.
The small team of two doctors and six nurses at Whakatane Hospital's emergency department "were confronted with one of the country's largest natural disasters," the hospital said.
"I've never seen this number of critically injured patients coming into an emergency department in a short space of time," Dr. Heike Hundemer, Whakatane Hospital's clinical leader, told the media.
Messages and medical resources have been sent to New Zealand from the United States, Australia and Britain, including skin for grafts. Survivors from Australia have been transferred to Melbourne and Sydney after medical evaluation. Only one Australian patient will remain in a New Zealand hospital by Friday.
Most of the survivors are in critical condition.
The White Island, a volcanic island, is a famous tourist attraction which people can explore by boat or by helicopter. If safety conditions permit, visitors can even enter the main volcano crater.
