Death toll from Indonesia’s Marapi eruption rises to 13 as search for 10 missing hikers continues

Ahmad Rifandi, head of Marapi’s monitoring post, told AFP on Tuesday it had observed five eruptions from midnight to 8am local time (9am Singapore time).

“Marapi is still very much active. We can’t see the height of the column because it’s covered by the cloud,” he said.

The head of Indonesia’s volcanology agency, Hendra Gunawan, said Marapi has been at the second level of a four-tier alert system since 2011, and a 3km exclusion zone had been imposed around its crater.

He appeared to blame hikers on Monday for going too close to the crater, saying the agency recommended no human activities in that zone and emphasised that “severe impacts” were reported for victims within one to 1.5km from the crater.

“STILL HOPE”

Officials said the hikers had registered through an online booking system, but others may have been on illegal mountain routes.

Relatives were still waiting for updates at an information centre at the base of the mountain.

As the search went on for the missing hikers, the family of Zhafirah Zahrim Febrina told AFP of their relief she was one of the lucky ones.

Good news arrived in the form of a livestream on video app TikTok by a member of the rescue services on which the 19-year-old could be seen.

Febrina had suffered burns and was visibly shaken, but still, her mother Rani Radelani felt relieved.

“It felt incredible, praise God she has been found,” she said. Febrina is now in a nearby hospital after being trapped on the mountain on a hiking trip with 18 school friends.

“If she asks me to allow her to climb a mountain, I’ll say no,” Radelani said.

Footage showing Febrina covered in ash has been shared widely on social media.