News Line Australia
Yogyakarta: Indonesia’s most active volcano has erupted with a river of lava and searing gas clouds flowing 1600 metres down its slopes.
It was Mount Merapi’s biggest lava flow since authorities raised its danger level in November, said Hanik Humaida, the head of Yogyakarta’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre.
A volunteer monitors Mount Merapi during an eruption.Credit:AP
After morning rain, ashfall turned into muck in several villages, where the sound of the eruption on Wednesday could be heard 30 kilometres away. Police and rescue services told miners to cease work along rivers but no one was evacuated.
Authorities in November had evacuated nearly 2000 people living on the mountain in Magelang and Sleman districts on Java Island but most have since returned.
