Volcano
eruption in Indonesia spews lava, killing 6
Lava
from an erupting volcano killed six people sleeping in a beach
village on a small island in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, after ash
and smoke from the volcano shot about a mile into the air, officials
said.
10
August, 2013
Mount
Rokatenda in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted early Saturday
morning, and nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated from the area on
Palue island, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
The volcano has been rumbling since October.
The
victims who died included three adults and two children, said agency
spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, adding that the age of the sixth
person killed was unclear. He said that the adults' bodies were
recovered from Ponge beach in Rokirole village, but that the
children's remains had not been found.
Video
footage on Indonesia's TVOne showed giant plumes of white and gray
smoke and ash belching from the volcano into a sunny blue sky. Prior
to Saturday's eruption, many residents had already been moved to
safer areas.
The
disaster agency said the volcano spewed ash and smoke into the air.
The
eruption lasted about seven minutes, said Frans Wangge, who heads the
volcano's monitoring post. He said the lava burned trees around the
beach and villages, and made it difficult to reach the area where the
victims were killed.
Domi
Dange, a Catholic priest helping those who fled to the district town
of Maumere on nearby Flores island, said some residents, who had
refused to leave when the area was earlier cleared, were sleeping
under tents near the beach. However, details about the six people who
were killed and where they were located at the time of the eruption
remained unclear.
Local
authorities, including police and army officials along with members
of a search and rescue agency, were heading to tiny Palue island to
help with evacuations.
“We
will see the best steps to be taken, but clearly they have to be
evacuated,” said Yoseph Ansar Rara, chief of Sikka District, which
oversees the island. He said those already evacuated had agreed to be
relocated to Flores island.
Mount
Rokatenda is one of about 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an
archipelago of more than 17,000 islands that is home to some 240
million people. The country is prone to earthquakes and volcanic
activity because it sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a
horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines.
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