Indonesia volcano erupts again

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi has once again spewed clouds of ash and lava into the sky spreading panic among local residents, Indonesian authorities say.

Mount Merapi in Indonesia’s province of Central Java erupted again on Monday spewing searing gas and volcanic debris into the sky, officials said. The earlier two eruptions occurred last Tuesday and Sunday.

The volcanic ash spread southwards more than 2.5 miles (4 km), an official at Volcanology and Mitigation Agency in Yogyakarta said.

The mount spewed ash for over five minutes, but the intensity decreased later, another official said. The eruption triggered panic among thousands of evacuees living in shelters in Kaliurang of Sleman district.

Earlier Sunday, the volcano sent searing clouds of ash down its eastern and southern slopes, spreading panic and chaos among thousands of villagers, who, despite warnings from officials, took advantage of a lull in the volcano’s activity to check on their homes as well as their livestock high up on the scorched slopes.

Authorities were forced to call in more than 2,000 troops on Saturday to force men, women and children to leave their homes.

As the volcano erupted Sunday, sirens blared, and people jumped into the river in panic to escape the volcano’s latest fury, while others either ran down the mountain slopes or sped off in cars and trucks, said a local official.

The 46-minute fresh eruption forced the closure of the airport in Solo, 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Merapi for more than an hour, a spokesman said.