Rescuers digging through a meter of ash discovered nine more bodies on the slopes of Mount Merapi, whose explosive eruption a week ago buried whole villages. As confirmation of more deaths trickled yesterday, the toll from a series of blasts at the Indonesian volcano rose to at least 250.
The mountain, which has let off blasts of hot gas clouds over the past two days, resumed spewing ash yesterday as it has done continuously since it roared to life Oct. 26. No new deaths have been reported from the latest flows, which were well within the zone that has been evacuated.
Though there has been no major eruption since Nov. 5 — the deadliest day at Merapi in decades — tallying the dead from that blast has been slow.
Many villages where officials knew people had died have remained too hot — shrouded in drifts of ash a meter deep — for rescuers to work. Conditions have improved in the past few days, pushing the death toll from the devastating eruption higher, said Waluyo Rahardjo, a search and rescue official.
Four bodies were pulled from the mountain on Saturday and another five yesterday, said Heru Trisna Nugraha, a spokesman for Sardjito hospital, at the foot of the volcano. In addition, one person in the blast died at the hospital, Negraha said.
The National Disaster Management Agency’s official toll stood at 242 yesterday, but the spokesman said that figure did not include at least eight of the 10 latest deaths because the data had not yet been officially passed on.
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