At least 30 hikers are feared dead in Japan after being found in a lifeless state near the peak of a volcano that erupted a day earlier. <br /><br />Japanese authorities never confirm death until after a medical examination.<br /><br />Dozens of others were injured or are missing.<br /><br />Hundreds of people including children were stranded on Mount Ontake, some 200 kilometres west of Tokyo, after it suddenly erupted on Saturday.<br /><br />Smoke and ash was flung hundreds of metres into the sky, and several kilometres down the slope of the volcano.<br /><br />Amateur video taken inside a mountain hut showed volcanic ash passing the windows as people took shelter.<br /><br />More than 500 emergency staff including the military resumed their work on Sunday morning, helping stranded victims and looking for those still missing.<br /><br />“The volcanic rocks fell like hailstones. We couldn’t breathe so we covered our mouths with towels. We couldn’t open our eyes either,” said one survivor.<br /><br />At one stage on Saturday some 250 hikers were stranded on the mountain but most managed to make it down by nightfall.<br /><br />More than 30 people spent the night in mountain huts, most of whom came down on Sunday morning.<br /><br />Volcanoes erupt periodically in Japan but until this weekend no one had died for more than two decades.
