Villagers flee volcano's growing menace

KETEP, INDONESIA - Indonesia's most active volcano exploded with clouds of hot gas and ash yesterday, sending villagers who had been reluctant to leave scurrying for safety.

Grey ash covered some vegetation and rooftops in the area of Ketep, 10km from the base of Mt Merapi.

Many houses appeared deserted after residents evacuated the area.

Not everyone was gone, however. Some people cleaned the ash off their houses and others opened shops, while mini-buses continued to run.

The mountain "has exploded already", said the head of the Merapi section at the Centre of Vulcanological Research and Technology in Yogyakarta.

He said the mountain's eruption process could be gradual rather than a sudden burst.

From Ketep, the top of the 3000m Mt Merapi was totally obscured by thick grey and white clouds, which trailed down the volcano's slopes.

Activity picked up in recent weeks on Mt Merapi, one of the most menacing volcanoes in the Pacific "Ring of Fire", and there have been several lava flows in past days.

Ratmono Purbo, the head of the vulcanology centre in Yogyakarta, near the volcano, said of the hot clouds: "This is the biggest pile we have so far," adding that they "are billowing out of the crater for four kilometres".

Mt Merapi has minor eruptions every two or three years and large ones every 50 years or so.

Its last major eruption was in 1994, when 60 people burned to death in a poisonous gas cloud.

The volcano killed 1300 people in a 1930 eruption.

Over the weekend Indonesia raised the alert status of Mt Merapi to the highest level, also known as code red or danger status, although experts said they could not predict when it would erupt.

They have described the mountain as being in an "eruption phase" for weeks, but are looking for a substantial amount of volcanic material to be ejected high into the sky for it to qualify it as a full eruption.

The top alert level for the mountain means residents can be forced to evacuate. Authorities moved more than 5000 people living near the volcano to shelters in safe areas after the new alert level.

Thousands more moved earlier, but some have refused to leave their homes and others have continued to return during the days to tend livestock, collect grass, or otherwise carry on their daily routines.

Indonesian media reports said many who previously held back were leaving yesterday, in hundreds of trucks and cars.

Some residents would rather rely on natural signs than official orders. They say those signals would include lightning around the mountain's peak or animals moving down its slopes.

Officials put the number of residents on and near the mountain at around 14,000.

- REUTERS