About 75 climbers had started their way up the nearly 9,480-foot mountain on Saturday and became stranded before Marapi spewed thick columns of ash on Sunday.
The bodies of 11 climbers were recovered Monday a day after a furious eruption of the Mount Marapi volcano as Indonesian rescuers searched for 12 apparently still missing.
Marapi has stayed at the third highest of four alert levels since 2011, a level indicating above normal volcanic activity and prohibiting climbers or villagers within 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) of the peak, said Hendra Gunawan, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.
« This means that there should be no climbing to the peak, » Gunawan said, adding that climbers were only allowed below the danger zone, « but sometimes many of them broke the rules to fulfill their satisfaction to climb further. »
About 75 climbers had started their way up the nearly 2,900-meter (9,480-foot) mountain on Saturday and became stranded. Eight of those rescued Sunday were rushed to hospitals with burns and one also had a broken limb, said Hari Agustian, an official at the local Search and Rescue Agency in Padang, the West Sumatra provincial capital.
