Seventeenth victim of White Island eruption dies in hospital

An American woman, injured when the volcano on New Zealand’s White Island erupted, has reportedly died after complications with her treatment.

Another person who was on New Zealand’s White Island when it erupted has died in hospital, bringing the official death toll to 17.

Speaking to local news outlet 11Alive, a family friend said it was Mayuri “Mary” Singh who had died last night at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland.

Ms Singh, from Atlanta in the US state of Georgia was described by her friend Roger Da Silva as a “beautiful person”.

Ms Singh was on the island with her husband Pratap Sing when the volcano erupted, killing more than a dozen and leaving others running to the sea to try and escape.

The Singh couple were described as "beautiful people". Picture: 11Alive

Mr Da Silva told the Georgia news outlet Ms Singh had died in the Auckland hospital after complications with her treatment, which included skin grafts.

“It’s kind of tough,” Mr Da Silva, who was friends with the couple for years, told 11 Alive.

Ms Singh reportedly had burns covering more than 70 per cent of her body while her husband, who remains in hospital, also received burns to 40 per cent of his body.

Police Deputy Commissioner John Tims, the national operations commander for the eruption, said the 17th victim died just before 11pm.

Ms Singh, reportedly the latest victim, is the sixth person to die in hospitals in New Zealand and Australia in the two weeks since the eruption.

The majority of the victims died in New Zealand, with one person dying in Sydney on Saturday.

Another person has died after being caught on White Island when the volcano erupted. Picture: Lillani Hopkins/AFP

This new death toll doesn’t include the two people still missing following the December 9 eruption.

Sydney teenager Winona Langford, 17, and New Zealand tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman, 40, haven’t been found, despite retrieval missions on the island and in the water surrounding it.

It is believed their bodies may have washed out to sea.

Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement said dive crews on a police boat spotted a male body in the water near the island two days after the eruption.

Winona Langford, 17, of North Sydney, was visiting the island with her family when the eruption occurred. Picture: Instagram

Hayden Marshall-Inman from Whakatāne was a guide to White Island.

He said the boat was able to manoeuvre within meters of the body but large waves prevented crews from recovering the body before it sank.

“We are deeply sorry that we haven’t, until this time, been able to return those bodies,” Clement told reporters in the town of Whakatane, near the volcanic island.

“That has been our mission throughout, firstly to save people and then to recover people. It hurts us, and it hurts our people and it hurts everybody in this community when we don’t achieve that purpose.”

Clement said there is a chance the bodies could be found at sea or wash ashore on the North Island’s East Cape. But he also said police would scale back their search efforts.

“We haven’t given up,” he said.

“But we are literally in the hands of the sea … the reality is we cannot be precise.

“I think the family understands as time passes it means less chance but not, no chance.”

A recovery operation to the island saw six bodies brought back to the mainland, with two still missing. Picture: New Zealand Defence Force/Getty Images

Ms Langford’s parents, Kristine and Anthony, both died in the eruption.

Her brother Jesse, 19, survived the eruption and is in hospital in a coma with burns to 90 per cent of his body.

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

Authorities are examining why tour operators were allowed to take travellers onto the volcano’s rim just days after scientists had raised its threat level.

Many of those killed and injured were Australian tourists who had been travelling aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas.

White Island, also known by its Maori name, Whakaari, is the tip of an undersea volcano about 50 kilometres (30 miles) off New Zealand’s North Island and was a popular tourist destination before the eruption.

It’s unclear if the privately owned island will ever be reopened for tourist visits.