Google – AFP, 10 Aug 2013
Mount
Rokatenda volcano spews a huge column of hot ash during
an eruption on August
10, 2013 (AFP)
|
JAKARTA — A
volcano erupted in central Indonesia on Saturday, spewing hot ash and rocks
high into the air and killing five people, an official said.
Mount
Rokatenda, on the tiny island of Palue, sent fast-moving red-hot ash onto a
nearby beach, leaving three adults and two children dead, said vulcanology
centre head Surono.
Rokatenda
has been on high alert since October, with authorities banning people from any
activities within three kilometres (1.9 miles) from the crater on the island of
around 7,000 inhabitants.
Surono,
speaking from Bandung city on Java island, said his staff at the scene had
reported the five people had been killed within the exclusion zone.
It was not
clear what the victims had been doing in the restricted area when it erupted,
he said.
"We
have found the bodies of the adults, but we are still looking for the children,
and it is difficult because the area is still very hot," Surono, who like
many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP.
The volcano
began erupting at 04:27 am (2027 GMT Friday) and it continued for nearly four
hours, said Surono.
He said
volcanic ash travelled as far as 2,000 metres (6,560 feet) from the crater.
The Indonesian
archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault
lines known as the "Ring of Fire" between the Pacific and Indian
oceans.
The
country's most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than
350 people in a series of violent eruptions in 2010.
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