No chance of finding worker's body on Raoul Island, police say

A police officer who travelled to remote Raoul Island to help search for missing Department of Conservation (DOC) worker Mark Kearney says there is no chance of finding Mr Kearney's body.

Sergeant David Thompson was part of a group of police and DOC workers who travelled to the island, 1000km northeast of Auckland, last week to search for the missing man.

Mr Kearney, 33, was checking the temperature of the crater lake on March 17 when it erupted, blowing trees over, throwing boulders into the air, and burying the surrounding area in mud up to 5m deep.

"From the evidence we've been able to gain... he was right in the area where the eruption took place and we hold out no hopes at all for Mr Kearney," Mr Thompson told National Radio this morning.

"We would have liked to have brought Mark's body back to his family so there is some closure there. Unfortunately that's not to be."

Mr Thompson said personally he didn't think there was any chance of finding Mr Kearney's body.

"So much earth has been moved, and the heat generated by [the eruption] has been tremendous and I don't think that we will find Mark.

"We couldn't get down into the crater because it's still pretty active but we were able to climb to the highest point on the mountain which enabled you to look right down into the crater itself... and there's still a lot of activity going on in the crater."

Three DOC people were still on the island.

"I think it's right that they are there... and I don't think they are in any danger," he said.

- NZPA