JAKARTA,
Indonesia (AP) -- An Indonesian volcano spit lava and smoke thousands of feet
into the air early Friday, sending panicked residents fleeing down its slopes.
There were no immediate reports of causalities.
The first
eruption at Mount Lokon occurred at 10:46 p.m., said Brian Rulrone, a disaster
management agency official. It was followed by a second powerful blast just
after midnight and a third at 1:10 a.m.
Darwis
Sitinjak, another disaster official, told El Shinta radio from the scene that
soldiers and police were helping rescuers evacuate about 500 people who live
along the mountain's fertile slopes.
They join
2,000 others who fled Wednesday after being warned to stay far from the 5,741-foot
(1,750-meter) volcano, which has been on high alert for nearly a week, with
small eruptions daily.
Indonesia,
a vast archipelago of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes
because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped
string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean.
Mount
Lokon, in north Sulawesi province, is one of the country's 129 active volcanos.
Its last
major eruption in 1991 killed a Swiss hiker and forced thousands of people to
flee their homes.
 |
Fresh from
the crater: Mount Lokon in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, erupts,
spewing hot lava and sending a towering cloud of volcanic ash 1,500 meters into the sky on Friday morning. Authorities have evacuated more than 2,500 residents living within a 3.5-kilometer radius of the volcano.(Antara/Jemmy) |
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