More than 10,000 people visit the volcano every year. The New Zealand Red Cross set up a website where people can register missing friends or family. “It is a very unpredictable volcano ...

According to New Zealand's geological monitoring agency, GeoNet, the White Island volcano, also known as Whakaari, erupted around 2:11 p.m. local time, blasting a huge plume of smoke into the sky.

A webcam photograph from the New Zealand geological hazards agency GeoNet showed a group of people inside the crater of a volcano moments before it erupted.; The eruption occurred at Whakaari ...