Falls on Mt. Fuji leave university student dead, man in cardio-respiratory arrest

GOTENBA, Shizuoka -- A university student and a man in his 60s apparently slid down a slope on Mount Fuji on Nov. 20, leaving the student dead and the man in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest, police said.

According to Gotenba Police Station, a male university student called police from around the ninth station along the Subashiri Trail on the country's highest peak at around 10 a.m. on Nov. 20, saying, "I and another person slid down about 100 meters and can't move because of broken bones."

The university student apparently slipped down again after making the call. He was subsequently found in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest on a slope near the seventh station by the police station's mountain rescue unit at around 4:30 p.m. and was later confirmed dead. He was identified as Ibuki Suemoto, 18, a first-year student at Hiroshima Institute of Technology and a resident of Yamaguchi Prefecture, police announced on Nov. 21.

On the morning of Nov. 21, Yamanashi Prefectural Police found another climber collapsed in a state of cardio-respiratory arrest near the Yoshida Trail's seventh station. Police suspect the climber is Katsutoshi Watanabe, 64, from Hiroshima, who fell alongside Suemoto, and are rushing to identify the person.

The two were among a group of six climbers from Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures in western Japan. The remaining four -- aged between 20 and 66 -- descended the mountain on their own, according to the police station.

The group apparently started ascending the 3,776-meter peak -- a World Cultural Heritage site straddling over Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures -- from the Yoshida Trail's sixth station on the Yamanashi Prefecture side at around 6 a.m. on Nov. 20. At around 10 a.m., Suemoto and Watanabe slid near the Subashiri Trail's ninth station. Snow had reportedly accumulated in the area.

The four trails leading to the summit of the mountain had been closed on Sept. 10.