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Mount Merapi volcano erupts again

17 May 2006, YOGYAKARTA - Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted again on Wednesday, spewing one of the biggest clouds of hot gases and volcanic debris recorded in recent weeks, officials said. Clouds of gas, rock and ash reached as far as four kilometers from the crater after one of the world's most active volcanoes erupted at 4:50 p.m. (0950 GMT), an official said.

'This was the second biggest after Monday morning despite two days of declining activity,' Hani, an official from the Centre of Vulcanological Research and Technology Development, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. A cloud of thick, black smoke pouring from the crater could be seen on local television broadcasts, and local TVRI reported that evacuated villagers at temporary camps nearby rushed out of their tents to watch the latest eruption.

Experts had been saying earlier Wednesday that the volcano appeared to have cooled down a bit, but warned that the country's most dangerous volcano was difficult to predict and the threat remained for residents living on the slopes. Experts at nearby monitoring posts said hot clouds and molten lava spewing from Merapi's crater were on the decline two days after a massive eruption that sent thousands of residents who defied an earlier mandatory evacuation order to flee their central Java homes in panic.

Triyani, an official at the nearby Centre of Vulcanological Research and Technology Development, said during Wednesday's first six hours, Merapi belched hot clouds four times - one reaching as far as 3,500 metres down its slopes - compared with 11 times during the same period Tuesday. 'But we cannot say that Mount Merapi has subsided,' Triyani, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told dpa. 'It's too early to say so, but also no one knows precisely when the big eruption will take place.'

'That's why we're continuing with our warning that the fleeing residents have to remain at the makeshift shelters,' she said. 'The volcano is still very dangerous at this stage.' Triyani also repeated earlier warnings that a collapse of the unstable lava dome inside the crater could cause superheated volcanic gases to pour out and speed down to residential areas.