A dozen hikers are still missing after a volcano in West Sumatra, Indonesia, erupted Sunday, killing 11 people and injuring others.
Video footage showed plumes of ash spluttering 9,800 ft. into the air around Mount Marapi—one of the nation’s 127 active volcanoes—over the weekend. Seventy-five hikers were in the vicinity when the 9,485 ft. volcano erupted.
While 49 people were safely evacuated to shelter, rescuers carried three people to safety and found 11 dead bodies close to the crater on Monday.
“Some suffered from burns because it was very hot, and they have been taken to the hospital,” Rudy Rinaldi, head of the West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency, told AFP of the rescued hikers. “Those who are injured were the ones who got closer to the crater.”
The mother of Zhafirah Zahrim Febrina, a hiker who is receiving treatment in hospital, told the AFP her daughter has incurred “tremendous trauma.” Rani Radelani, 39, said: “She is affected psychologically because she saw her burns, and she also had to endure the pain all night.”
Efforts to locate the remaining 12 hikers were paused following another smaller eruption. “It’s too dangerous if we continue searching now,” said Jodi Haryawan, a spokesman for the search and rescue team. Local residents are forbidden from going within 3 km (1.86 mi.) of the crater, and officials have confirmed that climbing routes have been closed.
Since 2011, the volcano has been placed on the third highest alert level on a four-level scale. But officials raised it to the second highest alert level in the aftermath of Sunday’s eruption. Hikers were prohibited from attempting to reach the peak, but according to Hendra Gunawan, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation, some hikers “broke the rules to fulfill their satisfaction to climb further.”
Marapi’s last eruption took place in April 1979 and killed 60 people, making it the volcano’s deadliest eruption.
Sumatra is part of Indonesia’s archipelago, located on the Pacific Ocean’s Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates can converge and invite high volcanic and seismic activity. National Geographic notes that around 90% of all earthquakes take place along the ring, while 75% of the earth’s active volcanoes are located in the region.