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Indonesia’s Mount Marapi erupted, billowing smoke, ash and molten rock up to 3km into the atmosphere – taller than the volcano itself. Tons of volcanic debris blanketed towns and villages at the foot of the volcano, but the world’s attention was squarely focused on the climbers who were on the mountain at the time of its eruption. Videos taken by the climbers, in what they undoubtedly thought might be a record of their last moments on Earth, show young people desperately calling home covered in ash, badly burned, and struggling to breathe. One such trapped climber, ‘Ife,’ recorded a message simply saying ‘mom, help Ife.’ She survived, but many others did not. Approximately 75 people had registered with the authorities as climbing the mountain during the eruption on Sunday. Of those, 49 were successfully evacuated, some with burn injuries and broken limbs, while a further three were rescued by first responders, who carried them down from the still-exploding volcano on foot. Currently, 11 bodies have been recovered while 12 remain missing. Some of the missing are suspected to have been near the crater when the volcano erupted. A second eruption on Monday, which spewed a further 800m of ash into the air, has hampered rescue efforts, according to West Sumatra’s Search and Rescue Agency.
