Indonesian authorities have raised the alarm over the volatile Mount Merapi volcano on the densely populated island of Java and ordered people inside a 3-kilometer (2-mile) radius to evacuate.
Merapi has erupted 4 times since Monday, spewing a 3,500-meter (11,483-foot) column of volcanic material and showering the encompassing region with ash.
National disaster mitigation agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said about 660 people living within the exclusion zone had been evacuated since early Tuesday.
Indonesia’s geological agency has raised the alert in Merapi from normal to “beware” on account of increased activity.
The disaster agency described Merapi’s eruptions as phreatic, meaning magma heats groundwater and steam is released under pressure.
This month, the airport in Yogyakarta, the town closest to the volcano, was briefly closed on account of the eruption.
There were no reports of casualties and there was no impact on airport operations since then.
The 2,968 m high mountain is positioned about 30 km from the middle of Yogyakarta.
According to data from the authorities of the encompassing municipalities, a couple of quarter of one million people live inside a ten km radius of the volcano. The last major eruption in 2010 killed 347 people and evacuated 20,000 villagers.
For centuries, Indonesians have cultivated the fertile volcanic soil on the mountain slopes, and recently the volcano has change into a tourist attraction.
Nugroho said climbing on Merapi is prohibited and only disaster agency personnel or related researchers should enter the restricted area.
Indonesia, an archipelago of over 250 million people, is positioned within the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is liable to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Indonesian government seismologists monitor over 120 energetic volcanoes.
Additional reporting by Reuters
