(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Five more bodies were found near the peak of an erupting Japanese volcano yesterday, as rescuers suspended their search because of the growing danger from toxic gas.
The grim discovery takes to at least 36 the total number of people feared to have died when Mount Ontake erupted without warning during a busy hiking weekend.
A police spokesman said the five bodies were in addition to 31 discovered Sunday.
Hundreds of firefighters, police and troops had spent much of yesterday around the peak, with helicopters flying overhead, despite the gases and steam billowing from the ruptured crater of the 3,067-metre volcano.
A Japanese army official who took part in the search said rescuers had been wearing helmets, bullet-proof vests, goggles and masks to protect themselves from any fresh eruption.
"I saw rocks up to probably one metre across (that had been thrown through the air by the force of the eruption)," he said, adding the search had been difficult and involved digging through ash.
Heartbreaking stories have begun to emerge from survivors who made it down the mountain as rolling clouds of volcanic debris swept down its flanks, smothering everything in their path.
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