Mount Merapi erupts, spewing ash 6 km high
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupted twice yesterday sending clouds of grey ash 6,000 meters into the sky, the country’s geological agency said.
The two eruptions lasted around seven minutes, according to the agency, and prompted local authorities to order residents to stay outside a three-kilometer 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 neighboring areas including Sleman and Klaten heard strong rumbling sounds this 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 1930, 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 Southeast 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. 10 missing after fishing boat capsizes off Indonesia
Fishermen missing
Meanwhile, ten people were missing after a boat carrying 16 fishermen capsized in Indonesian waters near the Anak Krakatau volcano, officials said Saturday. Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said the motorboat sank on Thursday after being hit by strong waves in the Sunda strait.
“Six were rescued alive on Friday and we continue searching for the 10 people still missing today,” Indonesia’s search and rescue agency spokesman Muhammad Yusuf Latif told AFP on Saturday. The group had attempted to swim to nearby Rakata island, he added.
“Six returned to the capsized boat and they were rescued. But the other 10 continued swimming and their whereabouts remain unknown,” Latif said. Rescue teams expanded their search for survivors on Saturday.