UPDATE
Finally Mount Merapi erupted at 5.02pm (local time) Tuesday sending clouds of ash as high as 1,500 and spewed clouds of hot ash, causing burn injuries to at least 13 people. Three explosions around 1800 (1100 GMT) spewing volcanic material as high as 1.5km (one mile) and sending heat clouds down the slopes.
Television visuals showed fallen ash from the volcano as far away as 15km at evacuation centres. The peak of Mount Merapi was clouded with smoke making it impossible to see if lava was spewing out, but that ash had started raining down on frightened residents.
"This is an initial phase of an eruption," Subandrio, head of the Volcanic Technology Development and Research Centre in Yogyakarta was quoted by the media. There are fears that the current activity could foreshadow a much more destructive explosion in the coming weeks or months, though it is possible, too, that the volcano will settle back down after a slow, long period of letting off steam.
Government vulcanologist Surono commented: "Today's eruption released heat clouds of gas and ash down the slopes for about two hours. We cannot tell you how far the searing clouds went down on the slopes because it's dark. 7.5 million cubic meters of volcanic material was the remnants from the 1911 eruption and prone to collapse under magma pressure.If the 1911 dome is pushed by magma, the domes created during the 1997 and 2006 eruptions will also collapse.”
A three-month-old baby died after experiencing respiratory problems after Indonesia's most volatile volcano Mount Merapi. Private MetroTV reported that another baby died when a mother ran in panic after the eruption started. Its report cited a local doctor and showed the mother weeping as the baby was covered with white blanket at a hospital. These two babies are among 19 officially admitted dead.One rescuer, Christian Awuy, told the BBC that he feared up to 50 could have been killed.
Television visuals showed fallen ash from the volcano as far away as 15km at evacuation centres. The peak of Mount Merapi was clouded with smoke making it impossible to see if lava was spewing out, but that ash had started raining down on frightened residents.
"This is an initial phase of an eruption," Subandrio, head of the Volcanic Technology Development and Research Centre in Yogyakarta was quoted by the media. There are fears that the current activity could foreshadow a much more destructive explosion in the coming weeks or months, though it is possible, too, that the volcano will settle back down after a slow, long period of letting off steam.
Government vulcanologist Surono commented: "Today's eruption released heat clouds of gas and ash down the slopes for about two hours. We cannot tell you how far the searing clouds went down on the slopes because it's dark. 7.5 million cubic meters of volcanic material was the remnants from the 1911 eruption and prone to collapse under magma pressure.If the 1911 dome is pushed by magma, the domes created during the 1997 and 2006 eruptions will also collapse.”
A three-month-old baby died after experiencing respiratory problems after Indonesia's most volatile volcano Mount Merapi. Private MetroTV reported that another baby died when a mother ran in panic after the eruption started. Its report cited a local doctor and showed the mother weeping as the baby was covered with white blanket at a hospital. These two babies are among 19 officially admitted dead.One rescuer, Christian Awuy, told the BBC that he feared up to 50 could have been killed.
