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People prepare to flee during the eruption. AP Photo

Victims engulfed in ash as volcano kills at least 15

Victims were covered by scorching clouds during the eruption.

INDONESIAN OFFICIALS HAVE been searching through thick ash for bodies today after Mount Sinabung volcano erupted, killing at least 15 people.

Scorching clouds engulfed victims during the eruption on Saturday, leaving rescuers with little hope of finding survivors as they searched through ash up to 30 centimetres (12 inches) thick.

About 170 people, including from the military and police, armed with chainsaws and oxygen apparatus spread out through apocalyptic-like destruction in Sukameriah village, officials said.

Sukameriah, just 2.7 kilometres from Sinabung’s crater, is located in the “red zone” around the volcano, where human activities are strictly banned, disaster official Tri Budiarto said. Residents had been evacuated.

‘No sign of life’

“It’s very dangerous and completely out of bounds. But many of the tourists still secretly went to the area to take photographs,” Budiarto added.

image

An Indonesian soldier runs on an ash-covered road as he searches for victims. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

The first team to enter the village on Sunday morning emerged 15 minutes later empty-handed, a correspondent there said.

“There’s no sign of human life. All the crops were gone. Many houses were damaged and those still standing were covered in thick white ash. It was hard to walk in ash which nearly reached my calves,” Gito, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP.

He added:

We didn’t find bodies but we picked up a bag belonging to one of the victims. The cellphone was ringing.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, was unable to put a figure to the number of people still missing, but said there was a “chance” that the death toll might rise.

image

People search for victims. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

“A body was spotted near a tree, but we have yet to evacuate (it),” he said.

Survivors

Officials said finding survivors was unlikely.

“I doubt it would be possible for anyone to survive the heat clouds yesterday. So far, we have not found any more bodies,” said Lieutenant Colonel Asep Sukarna, who led the search operation.

The volcano on the western island of Sumatra started erupting in September, but on Saturday spewed hot rocks and ash 2,000 metres (16,00 feet) into the air, blanketing the surrounding countryside with grey dust.

image

A motorbike covered in dust from the volcano. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

Fourteen people — mainly local tourists, including four secondary school students on a sightseeing trip — were killed by lethal heat clouds which cascaded down the volcano.

A 24-year-old man who was accompanying his father to pay respects at the graves of their relatives died from his injuries early on Sunday, raising the death toll to 15, Nugroho said.

Search operation

Two other people are being treated for serious burns at a local hospital.

Officials warned that the threat of more searing heat clouds and weather conditions may affect search operations.

image

A man weeps after identifying a victim of the volcano. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)

“It’s cloudy today so we worry that it might rain,” Karo district spokesman Robert Peranginangin said. “If it rains, the area will be muddy and hard to walk, so we will have to stop search and rescue.”

Officials are also putting up more signs to warn people not to enter the area, officials said.

Mount Sinabung is one of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia that straddle major tectonic fault lines, known as the Pacific Ring of Fire.

The country’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of eruptions in 2010.

- © AFP, 2014

Read: Hello, world: New island off Japan coast after volcano eruption >

Read: Volcano erupts 30 times in one day >

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    Mute Begrudgy
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:50 PM

    Its because Haughey was one of the biggest Irish crime bosses in the 20th Century. The Irish cant get enough of Gangsters. We have a perverse love affair with them.

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    Mute Dave Mitchell
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    Oct 16th 2013, 4:05 PM

    We do indeed. Look at John G hero. Filling the papers

    34
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    Mute andrew
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:36 PM

    Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1 this morning, the veteran PR expert said it was “extraordinary” that the fascination had remained.

    It remains because Haughey’s and FF’s corruption has had such far reaching consequences for all of us. It shapes the way we spend our days

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    Mute Lucinda Dalton
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:37 PM

    And bought off the masses with a free bus pass.

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    Mute Joe Traynor
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:50 PM

    That’s the masse for you Lucinda !

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    Mute Angela Kelly
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:27 PM

    What a clown, just goes to show how RTE is the Governments propaganda wing

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    Mute John O'Neill
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:39 PM

    He had Miriam dripping all over him. It must be the legendary charm he likes to think he has….

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    Mute Soneps
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    Oct 16th 2013, 4:04 PM

    Her brother Jim OCallaghan is a Fianna Fail councillor for Dublin South East. A lot of RTE is one big RTE clique, all longing for a return to the glory days.

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    Mute Soneps
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    Oct 16th 2013, 4:07 PM

    *FF clique – Same with Ryan Tubridy, whose father was an FF TD, grand father was a prominent member and two of his cousins are Chris Andrew and Barry Andrews.

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    Mute Owen Brady
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    Oct 16th 2013, 7:32 PM

    SHOWTIME

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    Mute Cowenwatch
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    Oct 16th 2013, 8:26 PM

    Isn’t Tubs related to the Lenihan brothers and Mary O’Rourke too? Maybe not!

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    Mute Lucinda Dalton
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:30 PM

    ““They should look at the whole man and reflect on the good things that he did as well as the things he maybe shouldn’t have done”

    He MAYBE shouldn’t have done. Still a PR man I see PJ.

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    Mute Dave Mitchell
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:41 PM

    So pj what your trying to say is rte will remain rubbish add t .v. paying 160 a year to watch adds. Were would you get it

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    Mute Joe Traynor
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:55 PM

    Charlie was corrupt no doubt about it but he wasn’t incompetent like most of the current bunch. We will never get quality in government as long as we are electing the clown that makes the most promises every time .

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    Mute Ryan Ash
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    Oct 16th 2013, 5:00 PM

    Don’t forget all the promises that Haughey made to get elected in the 80s, and then did an immediate U-turn on with his famous “Ireland is living beyond its means” speech.

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    Mute Keith Dickinson
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    Oct 16th 2013, 4:34 PM

    ‘Divisive Politician’. What an extraordinarily PC term. Anyone care to suggest more appropriate terms? Let me start…. ‘Criminal’.

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    Mute Petr Tarasov
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    Oct 16th 2013, 8:07 PM

    Filth

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    Mute censored
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    Oct 16th 2013, 9:49 PM

    A right charvet.

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    Mute Go Tobann
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    Oct 16th 2013, 4:36 PM

    RTE, fianna fail, elitism, corruption, publicans, horseracing, high court judges, tribunals, Catholic church, living beyond your means and a sneery grin. Please let us move past this Ireland of old.

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    Mute Donal Quigley
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    Oct 16th 2013, 4:05 PM

    Haughey did an enormous amount of good from provding adequate pensions, free bus travel, succession rights for spouses, the IFSC, averting bankruptcy for the state after Fitzgerald/Spring, attempting protecting citizens in the north from loyalist mobs. And yes there was corruption but that appears to always be with us. I’m sure it will be the usual lefty RTE hatchet job.

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    Mute Paul McGovern
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    Oct 16th 2013, 4:40 PM

    What strange analysis.

    So it’s lefty to be anti corruption and abusing power?

    Are right wing people for these things then?

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    Mute Petr Tarasov
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    Oct 16th 2013, 8:06 PM

    What a horrible little fool you are Donal.

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    Mute Jonie Kinsella
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    Oct 17th 2013, 3:04 PM

    Well said Donal they much bigger clowns out there now then poor old Charlie R.I. P.
    He was a great politician he only took from the rich like Ben dunne that gave him the money ,

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    Mute Padraig Lehany
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    Oct 16th 2013, 5:35 PM

    Haughey got tips from De Valera!!

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    Mute Vera Clavin
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    Oct 16th 2013, 8:54 PM

    good old mara..collecting the old age pension and child allowance at the same time!!

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    Mute Squig Dublin
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:45 PM

    I don’t see how that is Angela, can you elaborate? In my opinion the fascination is there still because of the far reaching corruption coupled with the fact that Charlie was such a successful and good politician

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    Mute Squig Dublin
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:46 PM

    Can’t wait for the show btw

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    Mute Squig Dublin
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    Oct 16th 2013, 3:45 PM

    I don’t see how that is Angela, can you elaborate? In my opinion the fascination is there still because of the far reaching corruption coupled with the fact that Charlie was such a successful and good politician

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    Mute Petr Tarasov
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    Oct 16th 2013, 7:35 PM

    This is the only clip featuring Haughey I want to watch!

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    Mute Michael Zod Shannon
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    Nov 3rd 2013, 7:43 PM

    THE GENERAL made that human sewage martin cahill look like a lovable chancer. I hope RTE do better with that piece of garbage haughey

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