By Agence France-Presse
Divers searched seas around New Zealand's volatile White Island Saturday for two people still missing five days after the volcano erupted, amid warnings it could do so again.
This handout photo taken and released on December 13, 2019 by the New Zealand Defence Force shows elite soldiers taking part in a mission to retrieve bodies from White Island after the December 9 volcanic eruption, off the coast from Whakatane on the North Island.
(AFP PHOTO / NEW ZEALAND DEFENCE FORCE / MANILA BULLETIN)
Police deputy commissioner John Tims said the divers faced "unique and challenging conditions" as they searched waters "with between zero and two meters visibility".
They were focusing on an area where a body was seen floating in the water earlier in the week.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, meanwhile, has called for a minute’s silence to be observed at 2:11 pm (0111 GMT) on Monday in honor of the victims of the eruption.
"Together we can express our sorrow for those who have died and been hurt, and our support for their grieving families and friends," Ardern said with the minute's silence to start exactly one week after the eruption began.
Of the 47 people on the island at the time of the eruption, at least 16 were killed while 28 remain in hospitals in New Zealand and Australia with 21 listed as being in a "critical" condition.
Scientists monitoring the island said the likelihood of another eruption over the weekend was decreasing but the risk remained.
"Their new calculation was that there is a 35-50 per percent chance of an eruption occurring," Natalia Deligne, a volcanic hazard and risk modeler, said.
The remains of six people were retrieved Friday in a daring rescue by elite soldiers under threat of another blast.
Most of the people on the island were tourists from Australia, the United States, Britain, China, Germany, Malaysia and New Zealand who were on a day trip to see the natural wonder.