New Zealand has placed an order for 1,300 sq ft of skin from the US to help treat patients who were severely burned in the volcanic eruption on White Island.

Burns units across the country are at capacity and surgeons have been working around the clock on 30 patients severely injured by volcanic ash and gas.

Two British women are believed to be among those in hospital. At least six people were killed by the eruption on Monday and nine are still missing.

New Zealand officials are planning to recover the bodies of eight victims of the White Island volcano eruption on Friday.

Continuing volcanic activity since Monday’s eruption has prevented rescue services going to the island.

But police said in a press conference on Thursday the site was expected to be stable enough to allow the planned retrieval operation to proceed, although New Zealand’s seismic monitoring agency said a further eruption remained a possibility.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: “Everyone is desperate to get those victims back and so I know that will be a matter that the police are utterly focused on.”

Some of the survivors received burns to 95pc of their bodies, while others suffered burns to 40-50pc. There are also patients with significant burns to their internal organs.

Australia has donated skin and tissue banks, as well as skin grafts and supplies, but doctors are anticipating patients will need much more skin to meet their “ongoing needs”.

Police have released the names of the nine people missing. They are seven Australian tourists who made a day trip to White Island from a cruise ship that had left Sydney a few days earlier and two tour guides from New Zealand.

Police have said they presume all people still on the volcanic island are dead.

Half of the 47 visitors on the island when the volcano erupted were Australians and most were from the cruise ship. Authorities say there were 24 Australians, nine Americans, five New Zealanders, four Germans, two Britons, two Chinese and a Malaysian on the island when the disaster struck.

Emergency services have said the island is still “highly volatile”, with “serious physical and chemical hazards” standing in the way of any further search operation.

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