AGAM (AFP) – Indonesian rescuers were searching yesterday for the final hiker who went missing after a volcano eruption that left 22 other people dead, but hopes were fading three days after the disaster.
Mount Marapi on the island of Sumatra spewed an ash tower 3,000 metres (m) – taller than the volcano itself – into the sky on Sunday as 75 people hiked in the area.
Hundreds of rescuers have worked for days to find the missing hikers, who have been carried down the mountain in bodybags in an arduous search effort hampered by further eruptions and bad weather that forced workers to intermittently take shelter.
“There were many rumours and unclear reports. Let us make it clear, we still don’t know the whereabouts of this one victim,” head of the Padang Search and Rescue Agency Abdul Malik told reporters.
It came after Suharyono, West Sumatra police chief who goes by one name, told reporters late on Tuesday that the last hiker was feared dead, which has not been confirmed by the rescue officials on the ground.
“Twenty-three people are suspected to have died. We all prayed they all could be rescued but there was nothing we could do,” he said. Yesterday the volcano was still billowing a column of smoke into the sky, an AFP journalist said.
Fifty-two people were rescued since the eruption and some of the survivors have described their panic after it started.
“I was zig-zagging, going down around 30 to 40m” to a trekking post, Ridho, 22, told AFP from a bed in a nearby hospital.
“The eruption sounded loud, I took a look behind and then immediately ran away as everyone did. Some jumped and fell. I took cover behind the rocks, there were no trees there.”
Suharyono said on Tuesday evening that two of the 75 hikers were police officers, one who survived and the other one he suspected had died.
“They both just wanted to see the volcano, they were off duty,” he said.
“One of them survived and had a broken arm, he is being treated by doctors. For the other one, we suspected he died. Let’s wait for confirmation.”
