TOKYO: Three bodies were found inside a crater at the summit of Mount Fuji, Japan’s most famous mountain, with one of them already brought down from the slopes, police said Thursday.
The identities of the people, including gender or age, were not confirmed. An effort to bring back the two other bodies will continue Friday or later, depending on weather conditions, they said. A search was called off for Thursday because of forecasts for heavy rainfall.
It’s unclear whether the three people were climbing the 3,776-meter (12,388-foot) mountain together, as the bodies were found several meters apart.
The official climbing season had not yet started when the climbers entered the mountain from the Shizuoka Prefecture side.
Japanese media reports showed a vehicle with one of the bodies driving into a police station in Shizuoka Prefecture. The rescue team had been searching for a 53-year-old man for whom a missing person report was filed.
Separately, Kyodo News service said professional climber Keita Kurakami, 38, died in a hospital after being found by police while climbing Fuji from the Yamanashi Prefecture side of the mountain.
Fuji can be climbed from both Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures. The climbing season kicks in for Yamanashi starting July 1.
Mount Fuji, made famous in ukiyoe, or woodblock prints, of 18th and 19th Century Edo Era masters Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige, is a popular tourist destination.
Experts warn it can get extremely cold, even in the summer, and proper gear, climbing boots and clothing are crucial. Trekkers are also at risk of altitude sickness if they ascend too quickly.
The picturesque Fuji has long been an iconic symbol of Japan, with its gracefully sweeping slopes and white icy cap that stand out amid tranquil lakes and rice fields.
As many as 300,000 people climb Fuji every year, and watching the sunrise from the mountaintop is coveted as a spiritual experience. But worries have been growing lately about overcrowding from the influx of tourists.
The town of Fujikawaguchiko in Yamanashi erected a large black screen along a sidewalk to block the view of Mount Fuji to discourage photo-snapping crowds.
Rescuers seek to bring down bodies found on Japan’s Mount Fuji
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Rescuers seek to bring down bodies found on Japan’s Mount Fuji
- Police said Thursday the identities of the people, including gender or age, are still unclear
Costa Rica says plot to assassinate president uncovered
- Security services unveiled that a hitman had been paid to assassinate president Rodrigo Chaves
SAN JOSE: Costa Rica’s government on Tuesday said it had uncovered a plot to assassinate President Rodrigo Chaves on the eve of national elections, in which his right-wing party is tipped for victory.
Jorge Torres, head of the Central American nation’s Directorate of Intelligence and National Security, cited a “confidential source” as informing the agency that a hitman had been paid to attack Chaves.
The purported plot comes two weeks before the country holds presidential and parliamentary elections.
Chaves, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a second consecutive term, has backed one of his former ministers, Laura Fernandez, to succeed him.
Opposition groups have warned against what they see as possible interference in the election from the iron-fisted president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele.
Chaves has invited Bukele to Costa Rica on Wednesday to lay the founding stone of a new mega-prison modelled on El Salvador’s brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
Thousands of young men are being held without charge in CECOT, as part of Bukele’s war on gang violence.
