New Zealand body recovery mission underway

A New Zealand military team landed on a volcanic island on Friday morning to recover the bodies of eight people killed in an eruption this week. Police said the high-risk operation was going smoothly but slowly amid the risk of a fresh eruption. The weather, sea state and conditions on the island were all good, he said, but the operation was taking longer than expected due to the protective equipment the recovery team was wearing.

There were 47 people on the island at the time of the eruption. Twenty-four of those were from Australia, nine from the United States, five from New Zealand, four from Germany, two each from China and Britain and one from Malaysia.