Two British women severely burnt in the New Zealand volcano eruption have been named as a mother and daughter who were on holiday together.
Liz McGill, 67, and daughter Heather, 34, are suffering with severe burns since the disaster and are still being treated in separate hospitals in the country.
Both the women are said to have undergone a number of operations and will be in New Zealand for "for some time", according to Ian McGill, the former husband of Ms McGill who spoke to The Times.
There are plans to have them treated in Salisbury district hospital burns unit in Wiltshire when they return to the UK.
Mrs McGill is a social worker living in Basingstoke and Ms McGill had been living in China where she is a product director for a multinational company.
Eighteen people died when the Whakaari volcano on White Island erupted on December 9 at 2.11pm local time.
Sixteen bodies have been recovered in extensive searches that have taken place over the last ten days.
However, two remain on the island New Zealand. Tour guide Hayden Marshall-Inman, 40, and an Australian tourist, Winona Langford, 17 are still unaccounted for and may never be found, say police.
There were 47 people on the island when at the time, 24 were from Australia, nine from the US, five from New Zealand, four from Germany, two from China, two from the UK and one from Malaysia.
Mr McGill confirmed that his ex-wife and daughter were suffering from burns but would not say to what extent adding, "suffice to say they are likely to be there for some time".
While he believed their costs were covered by insurance he was unsure of how they would be transported back to the UK and was concerned about the length of the journey.
Mrs McGill's two other children Fiona, 30, and David, 37, are said to have travelled to New Zealand when the eruption happened but are planned to return in a few days.
A family neighbour, Mr Ben Murray, 85, said he had spoken to Mrs McGill's son before he left for New Zealand and said: "He said they were lucky because they were on their way out when the explosion happened."
There are around 20 survivors being treated for severe burns, ten were still in critical conditions a week after the eruption.
The Foreign Office has not commented.
