Japan volcano eruption: 30 mountain climbers dead (video)
Mount Ontake started erupting on Saturday afternoon. The Japanese authorities did not pronounce any warning for some reason.
Rescuers have found the bodies of 30 tourists not far from the volcano top. They died of a cardiac arrest and respiratory standstill. Official reports will be made after a medical examination.
There were 250 people on the slopes when the volcano erupted, most of them were evacuated.
Mount Ontake is only 200 km away from Tokyo and is very popular with tourists. Meteorologists registered 313 volcanic earthquakes in five hours, 240 of them occurred in the first two hours of the eruption.
Mountain climbers are usually forbidden to enter the areas of volcanic activity; however, nobody has been warned this time, BBC reports.
