Indonesia volcano erupts, injuring and stranding climbers and covering villages with ash
PADANG, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Mt. Merapi erupted with white-and-gray ash plumes Sunday, stranding and injuring climbers and spreading volcanic ash over several villages.
Two climbing routes were closed after the eruption and residents living on the slopes of Merapi were advised to stay 1.8 miles from the crater’s mouth because of potential lava, said Ahmad Rifandi, an official with Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center at the Merapi monitoring post.
About 75 climbers started up the nearly 9,480-foot mountain on Saturday and became stranded. An estimated 26 climbers still awaited rescue as about 168 personnel, including police and soldiers, were deployed to search for them, said Hari Agustian, an official at the local Search and Rescue Agency in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province.
Eight of those rescued were rushed to hospitals with burn wounds and one also had a broken limb, he said.
A video on social media shows the climbers were evacuated to a shelter, their faces and hair smeared with volcanic dust and rain.
The eruption sent ash plumes more than 9,800 feet into the air and hot ash clouds spread several miles.
Falling ash blanketed several villages and blocked sunlight, National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said. Authorities distributed masks and urged residents to wear eyeglasses to protect them from volcanic ash, he said.
Indonesia’s Mt. Merapi volcano has spewed avalanches of hot clouds, and hundreds more residents have been evacuated from its slopes
About 1,400 people live on Merapi’s slopes in Rubai and Gobah Cumantiang, the nearest villages about three or more miles from the peak.
Merapi’s alert level was maintained at the third-highest of four levels, Abdul Muhari said. He confirmed that authorities had been closely monitoring the volcano after sensors picked up increasing activity in recent weeks.
Merapi has been active since a January eruption that caused no casualties. It is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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