Two more casualties have been found on the Indonesian volcano that erupted recently, bringing the death toll to 13, according to rescuers.
After safety concerns led to a temporary halt, the search for the 10 missing hikers on Mount Marapi resumed on Tuesday.
Mount Marapi persisted in its eruption while hundreds of rescuers braved slippery terrain in the ongoing search for the missing.
The volcano emitted a 3km (9,800ft) ash cloud on Sunday, covering nearby villages in a layer of ash.
A total of 75 hikers were in the vicinity when the eruption took place, and the majority have been successfully evacuated and are undergoing treatment for burns.
Syahlul Munal, in conversation with BBC News Indonesia, explained that rescuers are leveraging periods of relative calm to search for the 10 missing individuals actively.
‘We are racing against time,’ he said.
Mr Munal, who is part of the rescue team, said the two bodies retrieved on Tuesday were found in separate locations.
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Mount Marapi, which means ‘Mountain of Fire’, is among the most active 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.
Ahmad Rifandi, an official at Marapi’s monitoring station, told AFP that he observed five eruptions from midnight until 08:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Tuesday.
‘Marapi is still very much active. We can’t see the height of the column because it’s covered by the cloud,’ he told the news agency.
Sunday’s eruption was captured in video footage, revealing a large volcanic ash cloud stretching across the sky and coating cars and roads in a layer of ash.
On Monday, rescuers took turns navigating the difficult mountain terrain, carrying both the deceased and injured, and swiftly transporting them to waiting ambulances with sirens blaring.
‘Some suffered from burns because it was very hot, and they have been taken to the hospital,’ West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency head Rudy Rinaldi said.