Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano has spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight Thursday that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters and left ash blanketing nearby villages and towns. No casualties were reported.

The volcano on the densely populated island of Java unleashed clouds of hot ash at least seven times just before and after midnight and fast-moving pyroclastic flows, a mixture of rock, lava and gas, traveled up to 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) down its slopes, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s spokesperson Abdul Muhari in a statement. The rumbling sound could be heard several kilometers (miles) away.

He said 253 people were evacuated to temporary shelters in Glagaharjo and Umbulharjo villages in Yogyakarta special province and in Central Java’s Klaten district because of the dangers on Merapi.

Ash from the eruption blanketed several nearby villages and towns and no casualties were reported, Muhari said.