Jakarta, Indonesia:
Indonesia’s most active volcano Mount Merapi erupted Monday, belching a cloud of ash into the air as red lava flowed down its crater.
The early morning explosions spewed clouds as far as 3.5 kilometres (2 miles) from the rumbling volcano, blanketing neighborhood communities in grey ash.
There had been no evacuation orders or reports of casualties.
Merapi, close to Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta on Java island, has been especially active in current months and authorities raised its danger level late last year.
Residents had been told to keep away from the region inside a 5-kilometre radius of the rumbling volcano, Indonesia’s geological agency stated.
“Residents should avoid volcanic ash and they’ve been warned about potential lava flows in the area surrounding Merapi,” it added.
Mount Merapi’s last big eruption in 2010 killed more than 300 individuals and forced the evacuation of about 280,000 residents from surrounding places.
That was its most potent eruption given that 1930, when about 1,300 individuals had been killed, when a further explosion in 1994 took about 60 lives.
The Southeast Asian archipelago nation has practically 130 active volcanoes.
Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, exactly where tectonic plates collide.
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