18 August 2009 51 views No Comment Email This Post

Three European tourists who scaled Mt. Pinatubo among dead

MANILA, August 7, 2009 (AFP) – Twelve people, including three European tourists, were killed from flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain north of Manila, police and officials said Friday.

Two French tourists and a Belgian who died were among 12 European and South Korean hikers caught in heavy rain after scaling Mount Pinatubo volcano on Thursday, said regional police official Chief Superintendent Leo Nilo De La Cruz.

Nine Filipinos also died in separate incidents.

A spokesman for the French foreign ministry in Paris said two French nationals had died and six others, including one injured tourist, were rescued.

“A group of French nationals on an excursion in Mount Pinatubo province were taken by surprise by rising water levels while crossing a river by car,” he said.

A spokesman for the Belgian foreign ministry, Bart Ouvry, told AFP a man from Brussels aged about 40 died in the incident but gave no further details. The six French tourists who survived, together with three South Koreans, were rescued by an air force helicopter.

French embassy consul Arnaut Rayar said he had spoken to the French survivors earlier in the day but “they were too shocked to go into details.”

The foreigners had hiked up the volcano, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Manila, but after they descended were caught by heavy rain that mixed with volcanic ash on the slopes to form deadly, fast-moving mudslides.

A Filipino guide and a Filipino rescuer were also killed.

The 1,475-metre (4,850-foot) Mount Pinatubo erupted with devastating force in 1991, spewing a plume of ash 30 miles into the sky, killing more than 800 people.

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