TOKYO: Authorities found four more bodies on a still-smouldering Japanese volcano yesterday as they resumed a search stalled by heavy rain, but a typhoon threatened to further hamper the recovery operation.
Local authorities said Friday that 16 people remained unaccounted for on Mount Ontake, which erupted a week ago. It was not immediately clear if the four bodies found yesterday were included in that figure.
The bodies of 47 other victims have already been retrieved from the mountain, in Japan’s deadliest eruption for almost 90 years.
Rescue workers have spoken of up to half a metre of thick, sticky ash smothering the slopes, with some of the dead found half-buried, leading to fears others may be entombed.
“Rescuers found a total of three more people in cardiac arrest today, and are now preparing to carry them down,” said a police spokesman in Nagano, central Japan, where the volcano sits.
In Japan only doctors can declare someone officially dead, so first responders typically report that someone’s heart has stopped and they are not breathing.
Police later said another body was found near the summit shortly before the search operation finished for the day.
Some 930 troops, firefighters, police restarted their search yesterday morning after heavy rain had suspended their recovery operation on Thursday afternoon. AFP
