There are fears for the safety of a group of hikers who were photographed walking near the edge of a crater just before a deadly volcanic eruption on New Zealand's White Island.

Live-posting cameras set up by New Zealand's geological hazard service captured the group's progress as they followed a path through a barren volcanic landscape towards white smoke billowing from the crater.

Photographs posted by the camera every 10 minutes show several groups of hikers moving about the crater, and the volcanic valley surrounding it.

However, only one group is still in view by the time of the eruption.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 34 seconds 34 s Eyewitness video shows tourists being evacuated from White Island after the devastating explosion.

At 2:00pm they were shown standing on the crater's edge against white smoke.

The following frame, taken at 2:10pm, shows the group appearing to walk away from the crater.

The eruption, recorded by the GeoNet service just one minute later, knocked the camera out of action.

The fixed camera appeared to have been damaged in images posted after 2:10pm. ( Geonet.org.nz )

Island received thousands of visitors per year

In the wake of the eruption, emergency services were dispatched to the island on a rescue mission.

Twenty-three people, many of them suffering from burns, were rescued and taken from the island in small boats.

Police later said six among those rescued had died, and that they were not expecting to see any more survivors on the island.

GeoNet describes White Island, also known as Whakaari, as New Zealand's most active cone volcano.

The Bay of Plenty island is a popular tourist destination, with several holiday providers advertising guided tours of the inner crater.

Tourist Michael Schade posted footage of the eruption to Twitter, saying he and his family had been at the crater shortly before the eruption.

A view of the devastated island from a nearby tour boat. ( Twitter: Michael Schade )

"This is so hard to believe. Our whole tour group were literally standing at the edge of the main crater not 30 minutes before," he posted, along with videos from the crater.

"We were waiting at our boat to leave when we saw it."