YOGYAKARTA, 26 April 2006 - Elementary schools around Indonesia's rumbling Mount Merapi on the world's most crowded island of Java suspended classes indefinitely as the volcano continued to heat up, a local media report said Wednesday. Faculty members said the decision was made to allow children to go on indefinite holiday after demands from parents fearing the crater's imminent eruption.

'The parents feared for their children's safety and wanted their families to be close together so that evacuating in the case of an eruption would be easy,' Suryati, a teacher at the Tarakanita school closest to the volcano, told the Jakarta Post. Some 18 elementary schools and 11 kindergartens in the area of the volcano, near the historical and cultural centre of Yogyakarta in Central Java, about 450 kilometres southeast of Jakarta, have closed.

Some of the over 2,500 children whose schools were closed continued having classes in makeshift tents or residential houses in nearby areas outside the danger zones. Local authorities continue to warn that surface tremors and multifaced quakes continue on Mount Merapi - one of the world's most active volcanoes - and that a major eruption could take place any day.

Volcanologists at Merapi's monitoring centre have said volcanic material at the peak of the mount has continued to increase in volume, providing conditions for a major eruption. They also point to the monitors and seismic measurements that show magma moving around the inside of the mountain, especially near the crater's peak where it is building a lava dome, as evidence of an imminent major eruption.

Due to Merapi's rising activity, government authorities in Central Java were trying to prepare residents in Merapi's danger zones to flee their homes. More than 30,000 people living in the danger area on the slopes of Merapi would have to be evacuated immediately should it erupt, local government authorities said.

The crater was put off-limits to climbers since April 12, while at the same time experts banned nearby residents and sand diggers from carrying out their activities in Merapi's slopes area.

18 April 2006: Villagers living near Mt. Merapi continue with their daily activities Monday despite the volcano expelling sulfurous fumes up to 100 meters into the air.

  08 January 2009 · Papua earthquakes drive thousands into tent camps
  08 January 2009 · Central bank cuts rate by 50 basis point to 8.75%
  07 January 2009 · FPI holds warfare training and recruitment session for Gaza
  06 January 2009 · No embassy in Bandung, demonstration at German cultural institute
  06 January 2009 · One liter of petrol for 50.000 Rupiah in West Timor
  05 January 2009 · Two more aftershocks hit Manokwari
  04 January 2009 · Manokwari airport closed after quakes
  04 January 2009 · 7.8 magnitude quake hits near Manokwari, 25 aftershocks reported
  03 January 2009 · Indonesia to launch stimulus to boost economy
  02 January 2009 · President: 'Indonesia supports Palestinian people's struggle'