Surgical teams treating dozens of casualties suffering horrific burns after a deadly volcano eruption in New Zealand will be tested to the limits of their expertise, a London-based specialist said last week.

Dr Jorge Leon-Villapalos, consultant in plastic surgery and burns at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, said his colleagues in New Zealand were world leaders in their field.

“I can only think of them working extremely hard and being taken potentially to the limit of their abilities,” he said.

“I would say that our colleagues in New Zealand have had maybe the work of a whole year thrown at them in a single day.”