Just over a month since the White Island volcano eruption on New Zealand’s North Island shattered the lives of dozens of tourists and their families, the tragedy has claimed yet another victim.
NZ Police confirmed on Monday morning that the official death toll had risen to 18 after “a further person died in an Australian hospital” on Sunday night as a result of injuries suffered in the December 9 eruption.
The man had been a patient at The Alfred, the Melbourne hospital confirmed on Monday.
Two more people remain in the same hospital, one in a critical condition and the other stable, following the eruption on Whakaari, or White Island, on December 9.