|
Hundreds flee as volcano erupts
20/08/2007 13:24 - (SA)
Jakarta - Hundreds of villagers living on the slopes of Mount Karangetang on an island in central Indonesia were evacuated after the volcano erupted, sending lava and hot ash down its slopes, officials said on Monday.
The 1 200m high volcano on the remote island of Siau erupted about midnight on Sunday, followed by another explosion four hours later on Monday morning, said Agus Budiyanto, an expert at the directorate general of volcanology.
Budiyanto said there were no reports of casualties in connection with Karangetang's eruption, in which lava and hot ash avalanched 2 000m down its slopes.
"We have received reports from local authorities that hundreds of residents living in the danger zones had been evacuated," Budiyanto said.
North Sulawesi's provincial spokesperson Jupiter Makasangkil said about 800 residents from the Dame village had been evacuated in case of a hit by lava and volcanic debris.
It was the latest eruption of Karangetang, which is on Siau Island in the northern part of the Sulawesi island chain, about 2 300km northeast of Jakarta, officials said.
Budiyanto said Karangetang, one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, has been rumbling for weeks and as of Saturday, its status had been raised to a "state of alert", meaning that people living in the volcano's danger zones must evacuate.
The Indonesian archipelago, straddling the seismically active "Ring of Fire", has the world's highest density of volcanoes. Of its 500 volcanoes, 128 are active and 65 are listed as dangerous. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
|
News
