Print this story

Merapi Volcano alert prompts mandatory evacuations

13 May 2006, YOGYAKARTA - Indonesian scientists have raised the alert status for the Mount Merapi volcano to its highest level, prompting mandatory evacuation of residents living near the mountain. Merapi, a 2,968-meter (9,738-foot) volcano near Yogyakarta city on Indonesia's most densely populated island of Java, has spewed pyroclastic flows since 8:30 a.m. local time today, Subandrio, head of the Mount Merapi observatory at the Volcano Development and Research Center, said in a telephone interview today.

"Pyroclastic flows have started since this morning, mainly on the southern slope of the mountain,'' Subandrio, who uses one name, said. He said the superheated flowing rock, ash and gases may spread to a radius of between 8 kilometers and 12 kilometers in coming days.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla ordered 17,000 villagers living on the slopes of the country's most active volcano to be evacuated when he visited the mountain in Central Java province on May 11. More than 1,500 people, mostly women, children and the elderly, have fled to shelters.

13 May 2006: Gunung Merapi pours out lava from the newly formed dome at the summit of the mountain.