Two German Tourists Missing on Mount Merapi

Search and rescue crews were dispatched to Central Java’s Mount Merapi in search of two German tourists who failed to return from a Sunday morning climb, an agency official said on Monday.

An unidentified man and woman “climbed Mount Merapi from a southern route on Sunday morning and have not yet returned,” Yogyakarta Search and Rescue Agency spokesman Teguh Supriadi told the state-run Antara News Agency on Monday.

The climbers’ began at Kinahrejon, in Cangkringan, Sleman, leaving their motorbike near Ngrangkah, before heading up the volcano, Teguh said.

The nine-person search and rescue team split into four groups to search along the route.
“This morning, they could still contact the tourists, and their position seemed to be in a dry river bed,” Teguh said. “[They] were weak from fatigue.”

He did not specify who the tourists had contacted, but he said they were likely near a small plateau not far from the peak.
“In their last [phone call] they said they had gone past two split gates, and this means they have passed Bangsal Srimanganti,” he said, referring to the highest outpost on the mountain. (Jakarta Globe)