Indonesia: Merapi volcano erupts, spewing heated cloud

• The Merapi volcano spewed a heated cloud up to seven kilometers high.
• People in the surrounding neighborhood have been told to halt all activity.
• No residents have been evacuated.

The Merapi volcano in Indonesia erupted on Saturday, spewing a heated cloud up to seven kilometers high, according to the country’s disaster management office.

The volcano in Indonesia’s Yogyakarta special region erupted at about 12 p.m. local time (0500 GMT), resulting in a 1.5 km lava flow, according to the local authority.

People in the surrounding neighborhood have been told to halt all activity within three to seven kilometers of the crater, according to the statement.

Merapi, a 2,963-metre-high (9,721-foot) volcano in Indonesia, was already on the country’s second-highest alert level.

No residents have been evacuated, according to a local monitoring post official in Yulianto.

“This has only been observed as a one-time event, there have been 5-6 avalanches. If the coverage continues to increase and the distance is further than 7 kilometers, it is likely that the residents will be recommended to evacuate,” he said.

Indonesia has more volcanoes than any other country on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Merapi last erupted catastrophically in 2010, killing over 350 people.

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