Brazilian tourist found dead in Indonesia after 4 days on volcano cliff, Asia News
JAKARTA/SAO PAULO — A Brazilian woman who fell off a cliff while hiking around Indonesia's second highest volcano over the weekend was found dead on Tuesday (June 24), Brazil's government said, following days of rescue efforts hampered by adverse weather conditions.
Juliana Marins, 27, was hiking with five friends on Mount Rinjani on Saturday when she slipped and fell off a cliff on the side of the 3,726-metre mountain, according to Indonesian authorities.
Located in West Nusa Tenggara province, the active volcano is a popular tourist site in the Southeast Asian archipelago.
"After four days of work, hindered by adverse weather, terrain and visibility conditions in the region, teams from Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency found the body of the Brazilian tourist," Brazil's government said in a statement.
Head of local rescuers Muhammad Hariyadi had told Reuters earlier in the day that Marins fell off a cliff on the mountain but not into the volcano crater, while noting that the soft sand in the area made it difficult to retrieve her using ropes.
Fifty people were involved in the rescue.
Hariyadi said Marins, who was initially located on Saturday, had slipped further on the sandy terrain of the cliff face. She was at a depth of 150 metres when first discovered, but had slipped to 500 metres by Monday morning.
Indonesian Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said in a statement that the Mount Rinjani hiking track would be closed to ease the evacuation effort and out of respect to Marins and her family.
Several tourists, including foreigners, have died in accidents while hiking the volcano over the past few years, according to local media reports, including a Malaysian tourist who also fell off a cliff last month.
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