- Mount Merapi
October 26, 2010 (KATAKAMI / VOA) -- Indonesian scientists say the country’s most active volcano, Mount Merapi, has erupted after days of rumbling that prompted authorities to order evacuations of surrounding villages.
Volcanologists say Mount Merapi began erupting on Java island late Tuesday. Earlier, they had warned that increasing seismic activity at the volcano in recent days indicated a major eruption was possible.
Authorities had evacuated several thousand children and the elderly from villages on the volcano’s slopes ahead of the eruption. But thousands of other villagers had stayed behind to take care of their livestock and crops.
An Associated Press reporter said several people had been injured by hot ash and were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Mount Merapi last erupted in 2006, killing two people. A similar eruption in 1994 killed at least 60 people, while a 1930 eruption killed 1,300.
