Authorities found three more bodies on a still-smouldering Japanese volcano Saturday after a search stalled by heavy rain resumed, while a typhoon threatened to further hamper the recovery operation.
Local authorities said Friday that 16 people were unaccounted for on Mount Ontake, which erupted a week ago. It was not immediately clear if the three bodies found Saturday were included in that figure.
The bodies of 47 other victims have already been retrieved from the mountain.
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 spokesperson Saturday in Nagano, central Japan, where the volcano sits.
Only doctors can declare someone officially dead, so first responders typically report that someone’s heart has stopped and they are not breathing.
Some 930 troops, firefighters, police restarted their search Saturday morning after heavy rain had suspended their recovery operation since Thursday afternoon.
Television footage showed soldiers in camouflage with gas masks hurriedly getting on a military helicopter departing to the peak, while scores of rescuers were carefully slushing up an ash-covered path to the summit.
Rescuers were using hand-held metal detectors and sticking poles into the ground in a bid to find victims possibly buried under the ash.
Mount Ontake was packed with walkers when it burst angrily to life a week ago. Many would have been there to witness the spectacular colours of the countryside as it turned to autumn.
