A Thai national earlier reported missing after Mt. Mayon erupted, spewing rocks and ash, has been found alive in the volcano’s rugged terrain as rescuers struggle to bring the recovered bodies of five other hikers to a safe clearing.
Boonchai Jattaporngong was found Wednesday with a broken right arm and burns on his body, neck and back. He will be carried down by troops to level ground, Philippine Army Col. Raul Farnacio told the Wall Street Journal.
The 35-year-old Thai tourist is part of a group that went up the side of Mt. Mayon, facing Lidong, a district in the town of Polangui, and separate from the group that climbed the volcano via the path from Malilipot town, WSJ reports.
The Malilipot group included four foreign tourists – three German men and a Spanish woman – and a Filipino tour guide who died in the avalanche of hot boulders the size of small cars on Tuesday.
All of the 27 tourists and tour guides who were up on the slopes of Mt. Mayon during the eruption has now been accounted for.
Efforts to retrieve the bodies by airlifting them to the ground have been hampered by treacherous terrain and erratic weather, a local offical said.