ALL life has been extinguished on a tiny South Pacific island engulfed by an undersea volcano off the coast of Tonga, say witnesses who made a daring trip to the scene.

A boatload of sightseers, including a local radio journalist, George Lavaka, narrowly escaped a hot blast of poisonous gases and ash as their vessel neared the uninhabited island of Hunga Ha’apai.

“There was a huge explosion and the smoke was coming towards us,” Lavaka reported. “People were yelling, ‘Start the boat, start the boat’ . . . we were a bit shaken, actually.” The sightseers found dead birds and fish floating in the water. The island was shrouded in black ash. Only the stumps of coconut trees remained.

Undaunted, a local airline was planning to fly adventure-seekers around the scene this weekend.

The volcano has sent spectacular columns of smoke skywards since it erupted last Monday. Tonga’s chief geologist, Kelepi Mafi, said that it had already reshaped the island and expanded it by thousands of square feet.

There has been no danger to people on the main Tongan island of Tongatapu, which lies on the Pacific “ring of fire”, a zone where continental plates meet and volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are frequent.

Residents of the capital, Nuku’alofa, 39 miles to the southeast, have watched the luminous display every night.

On Friday a large earthquake, registering 7.9 on the Richter scale, rocked the city, but its epicentre was 120 miles to the south and there was no significant damage.

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