Hikers trapped on Mount Marapi as volcano erupts in Indonesia

Hikers suffering burns and covered in grey ash have been rescued from a volcano in Indonesia after an eruption that has killed at least 11 people and injured dozens more. Forty rescuers are looking for survivors and bodies on the slopes of Mount Marapi on the western island of Sumatra, following a sudden and violent eruption on Sunday. Videos show stunned survivors, their burnt faces covered with thick grey ash, amid a landscape of billowing smoke. “Mum, help Ife,” says one 19-year old survivor, Zhafirah Zahrim Febrina, referring to herself by a family nickname. “This is Ife’s situation right now.” In another online film, a young woman croaks into the camera on her smartphone, her hair thick with ash. Officials said 49 people, most of them hikers, were evacuated from the volcano on Monday after a night on the slopes of the mountain. According to rescuers, the 11 dead, and many of the injured, were close to the crater when it erupted. Read the best of our journalism: