YOGYAKARTA, 11 May 2006 - Mount Merapi in Indonesia's densely populated central Java is spewing molten lava as far as 1,500 metres from its crater, prompting the country's vice president Thursday to urge an immediate evacuation of people living on the slopes. After a helicopter inspection of the active volcano, Vice President Jusuf Kalla called central Java's government authorities to evacuate residents living in danger zones to makeshift shelters.

"We shouldn't wait until the alert status is raised into the highest level, because volcanologists had says (Merapi) may erupt any day," Kalla said after he held a meeting with local government officials at nearby district town of Magelang. Kalla urged that all residents living at a radius of 12km from Merapi's crater to leave immediately.

While volcanologists said the red-hot lava sliding down Merapi's west side towards Krasak river is a new development, they added that the 1 500-metre long flow is still far away from any inhabited areas. Triyani, an expert at Yogyakarta's Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that molten lava was also flowing 200m down the south side of Merapi.

"Looking into this new phenomenon, we feared that the molten lava may flow from Merapi's crater to all direction should the volcano erupt," Triyani said. Merapi, about 450km south-east of Jakarta, began heating up a month ago and volcanologists upgraded the alert status to level three on April 12. Though volcanologists have not raised the alert status to the highest level of four, which would require a mandatory evacuation for those living on the slopes, Kalla said, "It's time now to evacuate residents in the danger zones."

Volcano watchers have warned that a new dome of lava on Merapi's peak, which has been growing rapidly in the last two weeks, could cause superheated streams of gas to travel down the mountain sides should it collapse. "It's very unlikely that Merapi will have a vertical eruption," said another volcanologist Subandriyo. "But the danger is with heat clouds and ash."

8 May 2006: More lava trails spewed from the peak of Indonesia's simmering Mount Merapi in a further sign of an impending eruption.

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