TOKYO — Rescue workers today found at least 30 people unconscious and believed to be dead near the peak of an erupting volcano, a Japanese police official said.
The victims have been described as not breathing and their hearts have stopped, which is the customary way for Japanese authorities to describe a body until police doctors can examine it.
The official from Nagano prefecture police said details of where the bodies were found and their identities were not immediately known. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Mount Ontake in central Japan erupted shortly before noon Saturday, spewing large white plumes of gas and ash high into the sky and blanketing the surrounding area in ash. At least 250 people were initially trapped on the slopes, but most made their way down by Saturday night.
Keita Ushimaru, an official in nearby Kiso town, said that Nagano prefecture crisis management officials had informed the town that four people were being brought down with heart and lung failure, and that there were others in the same condition.
Rescue workers were also trying to bring down the injured who were stranded on the mountain overnight. Military helicopters plucked seven people off the mountainside earliertoday, and workers on foot were also helping others make their way down.
With a sound likened to thunder, the volcano erupted on a clear autumn day, spewing large white plumes of gas and ash high into the sky and blanketing the surrounding area in ash.
Smaller eruptions continued overnight.
One witness told Japanese public broadcaster NHK that the eruption started with large booms.
In a video posted on YouTube, shocked climbers can be seen moving quickly away from the peak as an expanding plume of ash emerges above and then engulfs them.
Many of those who made it down emerged with clothes and backpacks covered in ash. They reported being engulfed in total darkness for several minutes.
Two Jetstar flights headed to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport diverted to Kansai International Airport in western Japan as a precaution.
Mikio Oguro, an NHK journalist who was on the slope on an unrelated assignment, told the station that he saw massive smoke coming out of the crater, blocking sunlight and reducing visibility to zero.
“Massive ash suddenly fell and the entire area was totally covered with ash,” he said by phone. He and his crew had to use headlamps to find a lodge.
“My colleagues later told me that they thought they might die,” Oguro said.
Two Jetstar flights headed to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport diverted to Kansai International Airport in western Japan as a precaution.
Japan’s meteorological agency raised the alert level for Mount Ontake to 3 on a scale of 1 to 5. It warned people to stay away from the mountain, saying ash and other debris could fall up to 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away.
Mount Ontake, about 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of Tokyo, sits on the border of Nagano and Gifu prefectures, on the main Japanese island of Honshu. The volcano’s last major eruption was in 1979.
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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.
