Anak Krakatau erupts, alarming local residents

Active volcano in Lampung, Indonesia, has erupted once again, spewing out a 200m-high column of ash and smoke.

LAMPUNG: Active volcano Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) in Lampung has erupted once again, spewing out a 200m-high column of ash and smoke that alarmed local residents in the early hours.

Data from the Magma Volcanic Activity Report compiled by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s Centre for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation show that the volcanic activity lasted for about two minutes starting from 5.29am.

CCTV footage from the volcano’s vicinity shows a 200m-high eruption from the base of the crater.

Andi Suardi, who is in charge of a monitoring post in Hargopancuran village in Rajabasa district, South Lampung regency, said the volcano’s alert level was level two of the four-tiered alert system.

However, despite eruptions being commonplace in the area, he advised local residents and tourists to stay away from the crater’s vicinity.

“It was the first volcanic activity to have occurred this month,” Andi said on Sunday as quoted by kompas.com.

Prior to Sunday’s eruption, the last recorded activity from Anak Krakatau occurred on Oct 27.

The last major eruption took place last December, when Anak Krakatau spewed out massive clouds of ash up to 3,000m high and triggered a tsunami that killed at least 430 people.

In 1883, Krakatau volcano erupted in one of the biggest blasts in recorded history, killing more than 36,000 people in a series of tsunamis and lowering the global surface temperature by 1°C with its ash.

Anak Krakatau is the island that emerged from the area in 1927 and has been growing ever since. — The Jakarta Post/ANN