Jerome Wirawa & Joel Guinton, in BBC News, December 2023, reporting from Jakarta and Singapore & deploying this title: “Mount Marapi: Eleven hikers killed as volcano erupts in Indonesia”
There were 75 hikers in the area during the main eruption on Sunday but most were safely evacuated.
Marapi spewed a 3km (9,800ft) ash cloud into the air, dimming the sky and blanketing surrounding villages in ash. It is among the most of Indonesia’s 127 volcanoes and is also popular among hikers. Some trails reopened only last June due to ash eruptions from January to February. Marapi’s deadliest eruption occurred in 1979, when 60 people died.
Three people were rescued near the crater on Monday before the search was suspended. They were “weak and had some burns”, said Abdul Malik, head of the Padang Search and Rescue Agency. Forty-nine climbers were evacuated from the area earlier in the day, many of whom also suffered burns.
Authorities did not immediately release the identities of the hikers. Video footage of Sunday’s eruption showed a huge cloud of volcanic ash spread widely across t e sky, and cars and roads covered with ash
Rescue workers took turns carrying the dead and the injured down the mountain’s arduous terrain and onto waiting ambulances with blaring sirens. “Some suffered from burns because it was very hot, and they have been taken to the hospital,” said Rudy Rinaldi, head of the West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Rescue workers coordinateShe was on a hiking trip in Marapi with 18 school friends and is now in hospital receiving treatment. Her mother, Rani Radelani, told AFP news agency that her daughter underwent “tremendous trauma”. “She is affected psychologically because she saw her burns, and she also had to endure the pain all night,” she said.
Another hiker moaned in pain and said “God is great” as a rescuer carried her on their back, the news agency reported.
Jodi Haryawan, a spokesperson for the local search and rescue team, told reporters that it would be “too dangerous” to continue searching while the volcano was erupting.
Additional reporting by Hanna Samosir in Jakarta
