Following the eruption of Mount Merapi in West Sumatra, 11 hikers’ bodies were found by Indonesian rescuers, according to AFP, which cited officials. Twelve climbers are still missing, and only three survivors have been located on the volcano.
Many hikers and residents who lived on the mountain’s slope were forced to evacuate on Sunday due to the eruption of Mount Merapi in western Indonesia. The volcano is currently at the third-highest alert level, causing authorities to create an exclusion zone around its crater. During its eruption, the volcano released a three-kilometer-long column of ash.
The head of the Padang Search and Rescue Agency, Abdul Malik, informed AFP that there were seventy-five hikers on the mountain as of Saturday.
Malik provided specifics: “Of the 26 individuals who have not been evacuated, we have located 14 of them; three were found to be alive and 11 to be dead.”
The search for the missing climbers has been halted due to a minor eruption on Monday, an official told news agency Reuters.
The head of the West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency, Rudy Rinaldi, reported that some hikers who had been rescued were being treated medically, especially for burns they had received from the extreme heat.
Mount Merapi, standing at 2,891 metres in Java and Indonesia, is referred to as the Fire Mountain. Situated at the boundary between the provinces of Central Java and Yogyakarta, this volcano is widely regarded as the most active in Indonesia, with frequent eruptions occurring since 1548.
Because of the collision of continental plates, the Indonesian archipelago, located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, is subject to increased seismic and volcanic activity.
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