Eruption kills three on Java
A POWERFUL volcanic eruption on Indonesia’s most populous island has blasted ash and debris 18 kilometres into the air, killing three people and forcing authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 and close seven airports.
The eruption of Mt Kelud on Java island could be heard up to 200km away, Indonesia’s disaster agency said.
‘‘The eruption sounded like thousands of bombs exploding,’’ Ratno Pramono, a 35-year-old farmer, said as he checked his property in the village of Sugihwaras, about 5km from the crater. ‘‘I thought doomsday was upon us. Women and children were screaming and crying.’’
Ash and grit fell to earth in towns and cities across the region, including Surabaya, Indonesia’s secondlargest city after Jakarta, with a population of about 3 million.
It also fell farther afield in Yogyakarta, where motorists switched on headlights in daylight. Workers attempted to cover the famed 9th century Buddhist temple complex of Borobudur with plastic sheeting to protect it.
A 60- year- old woman and an 80-year-old man were killed in the village of Pandansari, about 7km from the mountain, when the roofs of their homes collapsed under the weight of the ash and volcanic debris, the disaster agency said. A 70-year-old man died after being hit by a collapsed wall while waiting to be evacuated from the same village, where the volcanic ash reached 20 centimetres deep in some places.
The large international airport in Surabaya and airports in the cities of Malang, Yogyakarta, Solo, Bandung, Semarang and Cilacap were closed due to reduced visibility and the dangers posed to aircraft engines by ash, Transport Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said.
The disaster agency said tremors were still wracking the volcano but that scientists did not expect another major eruption. It said residents of all villages within 10km of Kelud – more than 100,000 people – had been evacuated to temporary shelters, but that some were returning to their homes.
The 1731-metre-high mountain in eastern Java – Indonesia’s most densely populated island and home to more than half of the country’s 240 million people – had been rumbling for several weeks. The disaster agency said the volcano had spewed millions of cubic metres of debris into the atmosphere.
Kelud’s last major eruption was in 1990, when it spewed out searing fumes and lava that killed more than 30 people and injured hundreds. In 1919, a powerful explosion that reportedly could be heard hundreds of kilometres away killed at least 5160 people.