TOKYO, Sept. 29 -- Japanese police confirmed late Monday that six more hikers related to Mountain Ontake's eruption were dead, rising the death toll to 10 as of now and leaving 26 suffering from cardiopulmonary arrest, reported local media.

The six that were officially announced dead were among a total of eight bodies that had been taken to the foot of the volcano, said Japan's Kyodo News, adding the rescuers also found another five bodies on the mountain, bringing the total found to 36.

Toxic gas around the peak halted the rescue works which includes about 550 police, firefighters and members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces.

The volcano, which straddles Japan's Nagano and Gifu prefectures, erupted shortly before noon on Saturday.

The report also quoted the National Police Agency that the eruption also injured 63 others.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday instructed Disaster Management Minister Eriko Yamatani to continue monitor the volcano activities and said that the government will "do its utmost efforts to rescue the climbers."

A penal at the Japan Meteorological Agency warned that another eruption would occur and the volcano could throw big rocks from the crater within a roughly 4-km range and that pyroclastic flows could occur.

The agency had raised its volcano eruption alert for the Ontake to three out of a five-level alert system, which restricts entry to the mountain and nearby area.