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New Zealand PM Hopes Recovering Bodies Helps Families Heal

VOA News

   New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Friday, after
   specialists recovered six bodies from White Island where a volcano
   erupted earlier this week, that the mission was about returning the
   bodies "to their loved ones."

   "We know that reunion won't ease that sense of loss, of suffering,
   because I don't think anything can, but we felt an enormous sense of
   duty as New Zealanders to bring their loved ones home," Ardern told
   reporters in Whakatane.

   Doctors also continued to work to keep alive dozens of survivors with
   severe burns.

   The military team flew into the island via helicopter Friday and wore
   protective suits to look for the bodies. They were not able to recover
   the remains of two of the eight people who died in the eruption, but
   officials said they would return to the island to try again.

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