JAKARTA • Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupted twice yesterday, sending clouds of grey ash 6km into the sky, the country’s geological agency said.
The two eruptions lasted around seven minutes, according to the agency, and prompted the local authorities to order residents to stay outside a 3km no-go zone around the rumbling crater near Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta.
The agency did not raise the volcano’s alert status after the eruptions, but it advised commercial planes to be cautious in the area.
Local media reported that people in neighbouring areas including Sleman and Klaten heard strong rumbling sounds yesterday morning.
Mount Merapi’s last major eruption, in 2010, killed more than 300 people and forced the evacuation of some 280,000 residents from surrounding areas.
That was its most powerful eruption since a 1930 event which killed around 1,300 people, while another explosion in 1994 took about 60 lives.
Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands and islets – and nearly 130 active volcanoes.
The South-east Asian archipelago nation sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a vast zone of geological instability where the collision of tectonic plates causes frequent quakes and major volcanic activity.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
