Indonesia evacuates residents, shuts airport after volcano erupts

Mount Merapi is one of the most active volcanoes in the country and a series of eruptions there in 2010 killed over 350 people.

Indonesian authorities ordered people living near a volcano to leave their homes on Friday and a major city closed its airport after the 5,500 metre (18,000 ft) peak sent a column of steam and ash into the sky.

The Mount Merapi volcano on the densely-populated Java island is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia and a series of eruptions in 2010 killed more than 350 people.

A disaster mitigation agency told residents living within a 5 km (3 mile) radius of the mountain to move to shelters, agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement.

He said that 120 people who had been hiking up Merapi were safe.

Ash treat to airport

The airport in Yogyakarta, the nearest big city to the volcano, shut because of the threat from the ash, the state-owned aviation agency AirNav said in a statement.

The disaster agency described Merapi’s latest eruption as phreatic, which means magma heats up ground water and vapour is released under pressure.

The alert status on Merapi had not be raised, it said.