TOKYO At least 36 people are feared to have died after a Japanese volcano erupted without warning at the weekend, raining ash and stones on hikers, but the search for victims was abandoned on Monday because of fears of toxic gases. 
 
 Rescuers at the peak of Mount Ontake, now an eerie moonscape under a thick layer of grey ash, on Monday found five more victims of Saturday's eruption at Japan's second-highest active volcano but authorities did not immediately confirm them as dead. 
 
 The eruption of the 3,067-metre (10,062-foot) peak, 200 km (125 miles) west of Tokyo, took place as the hiking site was packed with climbers, including children, admiring autumn foliage under a brilliant blue sky. 
 
 Twelve people have been confirmed dead in Japan's first fatal volcanic eruption since 1991, and 63 have been injured, some with broken bones. Eight were missing, but officials said some of them could possibly be among those who perished. 
 
 "It's my son, my second son. We've had absolutely no contact at all," a grey-haired man told Japanese television, adding that his 26-year-old son had gone to the mountain with his girlfriend. "We're utterly exhausted." 
 
 More than 500 rescuers had been combing the summit, ploughing through knee-deep ash and passing mountain lodges with holes punched in their roofs by rocks shot out of the volcano. 
 
 Helicopters lifted laden stretchers one by one from the summit on Monday, before rescue efforts were abandoned. As on Sunday, the smell of sulphur strengthened at the peak, fanning fears of toxic fumes and forcing rescuers off the mountain. 
 
 Japan is one of the world's most seismically active nations. In 1991, 43 people died in a pyroclastic flow, a superheated current of gas and rock, at Mount Unzen in the southwest. 
 
 Ontake, Japan's second-highest active volcano, last had a minor eruption seven years ago. Its last major eruption, the first on record, was in 1979. 
 
 Hikers said there was no warning of Saturday's eruption just before noon and hundreds were trapped for hours before descent became possible later in the day. 
 
 "I felt a hot wind blast against my back and crouched down to the ground," a man told NTV. "I was sure I was going to die." 
 
 It was natural that Japan's Meteorological Agency, which monitors volcanic activity, might reconsider its surveillance system, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. 
 
 "However, I believe that, given current levels of knowledge, they made the only judgment they could," he told a news conference. 
 
 Suga also said the eruption would have no impact on the restart of the Sendai nuclear plant in southwestern Japan, an area of active volcanic sites. The plant was just cleared to restart in early September. 
 
 Experts said it was hard to have predicted the eruption, despite tremors in the area this month, since there were no other changes in the mountain. 
 
 Also, the eruption appears to have resulted from a steam-driven explosion of a kind that is especially hard to forecast, said Toshitsugu Fujii, a volcano expert. 
 
 "They often occur quite suddenly and there is absolutely no guarantee that the earthquakes earlier this month were connected," he told a news conference on Sunday. "There is no guarantee of total safety when you're dealing with nature." 
 
 (Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Robert Birsel) ||||| KISO, Japan (AP) — Five more bodies were found near the summit of a Japanese volcano on Monday, bringing the total presumed dead to 36, police said, as toxic gases and ash from the still-erupting mountain forced rescue workers to halt efforts to recover the victims. 
 
 CORRECTS DATE - Firefighters and members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces descend Mount Ontake after they called off a search operation due to noxious fume in central Japan, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. Mount... (Associated Press) 
 
 CORRECTS DATE- Firefighters and members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces descend Mount Ontake after they called off a search operation due to noxious fume in central Japan, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. Mount... (Associated Press) 
 
 An aerial view shows rescue workers searching for missing people in the erupted Mount Ontake, central Japan, Monday, Sept. 29, 2014. Japanese soldiers managed to bring down eight more bodies by helicopter... (Associated Press) 
 
 An aerial view shows rescue workers searching for missing people near mountain lodge with heavily damaged roof top in the erupted Mount Ontake, central Japan, Monday, Sept. 29, 2014. Japanese soldiers... (Associated Press) 
 
 Eight more bodies were airlifted off Mount Ontake before work on the ash-blanketed peak was called off around 1:30 p.m., said Naofumi Miyairi, a spokesman for the Nagano prefecture police. 
 
 Together with four victims brought down on Sunday, 12 bodies have now been recovered, leaving 24 near the summit. Exactly how they died remains unclear, whether from gases, suffocating ash, falling rocks or other causes. 
 
 Police said the latest victims were found near a shrine at the summit, the same area where other victims were reportedly found. 
 
 Japanese TV network TBS showed soldiers carrying yellow body bags one-by-one to a military helicopter that had landed in a relatively wide-open area of the now bleak landscape, its rotors still spinning. 
 
 The bodies were flown to a nearby athletic field, the surrounding forested hills contrasting with Mount Ontake's ash-gray peak in the background, a reduced plume still emerging from its crater. 
 
 The bodies were then taken to a small wooden elementary school in the nearby town of Kiso, where they were being examined in the gymnasium. 
 
 Family members of the missing waited at a nearby municipal hall. 
 
 More than 200 soldiers and firefighters, including units with gas detection equipment, were part of the search mission near the peak, said Katsunori Morimoto, an official in the village of Otaki. 
 
 The effort was halted because of an increase in toxic gas and ash as the volcano continued to spew fumes, he said. 
 
 "It sounds like there is enormous ash fall up there," he said. 
 
 The rescuers reported a strong smell of sulfur, Morimoto said. 
 
 Saturday's eruption was the first fatal one in modern times at the 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) mountain, a popular climbing destination 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of Tokyo. An eruption occurred in 1979, but no one died. 
 
 Japanese media reported that some of the bodies were found in a lodge near the summit and that others were buried in ash up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) deep. 
 
 The mountain erupted shortly before noon at perhaps the worst possible time, with at least 250 people taking advantage of a beautiful fall Saturday to go for a hike. The blast spewed large white plumes of gas and ash high into the sky, blotted out the midday sun and blanketed the surrounding area in ash. 
 
 Hundreds were initially trapped on the slopes, though most made their way down by Saturday night. 
 
 About 40 people who were stranded overnight came down on Sunday. Many were injured, and some had to be rescued by helicopters or carried down on stretchers. 
 
 Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency tallied 40 people who were injured, including three seriously, and said it was trying to determine if any people were still missing. 
 
 Survivors told Japanese media that they were pelted by rocks from the eruption. One man said he and others went into the basement of a lodge, fearing that the rocks would penetrate the roof. He said he covered himself with a thin mattress for protection. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi and Ken Moritsugu in Tokyo contributed to this report.
– The presumed death toll in the eruption of a Japanese volcano has hit 36 after five more bodies were discovered today, the AP reports. They were found near a shrine at the summit, officials say. Twelve bodies have been airlifted down the mountain, but 24 are believed to remain, and officials have paused recovery efforts amid a continuing threat from toxic gases and ash at the still-rumbling volcano. Some victims were found under 20 inches of the debris, officials say. Reuters puts the number of injured at 63, with eight missing. It was Mount Ontake's first fatal eruption in the modern era, the AP notes. A minor eruption occurred in 2007 and a major one in 1979, though there were no fatalities in that case, Reuters reports. The latest blast was particularly tough to predict, an expert says, despite recent rumblings in the area. "They often occur quite suddenly and there is absolutely no guarantee that … earthquakes earlier this month were connected," he told reporters yesterday. "There is no guarantee of total safety when you're dealing with nature."