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 Six new eruptions in the morning sent lava and searing gas
tumbling up to 1.5 kilometers (.9 miles) down the slopes of Mount
Sinabung in North Sumatra province. Volcanic material spewed as high
as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air a day after authorities
had raised the volcano's alert status to the highest level.
About 15,000 people have been evacuated from 17 villages in the
danger zone 5 kilometers (3 miles) around the crater, National
Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. The
evacuation zone was expanded from 3 kilometers.
Thick, gray ash covered villages, farms and trees as far as 70
kilometers (43 miles) north of Mount Sinabung's crater, hitting the
towns of Binjai and Langkat.
"Everything turned hot surrounding us," said Jatah Surbakti, a
45-year-old farmer who fled with his wife and four children to a
shelter on trucks provided by the local disaster agency, along with
hundreds other villagers.
"We were running in panic under the rain of ash and gravel. ... I
heard many women and children screaming and crying," he said, adding
that his fruit and vegetable farms were destroyed by the ash and his
children's schools were disrupted.
The 2,600-meter (8,530-foot) Mount Sinabung has sporadically erupted
since September. An eruption in 2010 killed two people and caught
scientists off guard because the volcano had been quiet for four
centuries.
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Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said airlines had
been notified to avoid routes near the mountain.
Mount Sinabung is among around 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia,
which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the
Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines
encircling the Pacific Basin.
[Associated
Press]
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