Volcano alert on Java

Indonesia raised its alert for Mount Merapi to its highest level yesterday and ordered people living near the rumbling volcano to move immediately to safer ground.

Seismic activity has escalated dramatically at the volcano on the densely populated island of Java, with increasing lava spurts and about 500 multi-phased volcanic earthquakes recorded over the weekend, officials said.

The volcano, 26km south of Yogyakarta, is the most active of the 69 volcanoes with histories of eruptions in Indonesia.

It last erupted in June 2006, killing two people, but its deadliest eruption occurred in 1930 when more than 1300 people were killed. Heat clouds from another eruption in 1994 killed more than 60 people.