Four locals living around Karangetang volcano in Sitaro isles in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province were reportedly missing following an eruption of the volcano earlier Friday morning, an official said on Friday, Xinhua reported
Head of Social Department at North Sulawesi provincial office Recky Tumanduk said that those missing persons were presumably death, adding that the rescue team had found four dead bodies following the eruption.
"Those four dead victims were already evacuated by teams engaged by local administrator. The evacuation had been reported to the governor," Recky was quoted by the state's official news service, Antara, as saying in his office in Manado, the province's capital city. He added the searching efforts over those missing victims were still underway.
Recky said that the eruption in the most active volcano in the area incited panic among the people living in the isles, and made them refuge to places considered safe.
Citing the report, he said that the eruption ransacked five houses, making four people missing, some of them were buried alive under the debris.
No official data was publicized by regional mitigation agency regarding the eruption nor the scale of impact from the eruption.
The latest harmful activity of Karangetang volcano was recorded in July 2009 when it spewed hot lava, and made the local administration evacuate people living around the volcano