11 Climbers Killed, 12 Missing As Volcano Erupts In Indonesia

Jakarta: Eleven climbers were found dead on Monday while 12 are still missing after the Marapi volcano erupted in Indonesia’s West Sumatra.

Search operations, which had to be halted after Sunday’s eruption, were resumed a day later, reported Reuters.

Rescuers found 3 survivors on Monday, along with the bodies of 11 climbers, out of 75 who were in the area at the time of eruption.

“We have continued to search for the 12 missing climbers until this evening. We have not decided when we are going to stop the operation,” said Jodi Haryawan, spokesperson of the search and rescue team, adding that they were all local climbers.

Of the 49 climbers evacuated from the area earlier in the day, many are being treated for burns.

According to Jodi, evacuating the deceased was “very difficult”, as it took around four to six hours to evacuate one dead body from the volcano.

The 2,891 metre (9,485 ft) high Marapi volcano spewed ash as high as 3 km into the sky on Sunday.

It’s one of the most active volcanoes on Sumatra island and its most deadly eruption was in April 1979, when 60 people were killed.