YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Indonesia’s most active volcano erupted Wednesday with a river of lava and clouds of gas gushing for 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) down its slopes.
It was the largest lava flow on Mount Merapi since authorities raised its level of danger in November, said Hanik Humaida, head of the Yogyakarta Geological Risk Mitigation and Volcanology Center.
Authorities in November had evacuated about 2,000 people living in the mountains in Magelang and Sleman districts on the island of Java, but most have returned. There was no new evacuation.
The alert was kept at the second highest level and authorities told people to stay out of the existing 5-kilometer (3-mile) danger zone around the crater, as local administrations in the provinces of Java Central and Yogyakarta are closely monitoring the situation.
The 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) volcano is located on the densely populated island of Java and near the ancient city of Yogyakarta. It is the most active of dozens of Indonesian volcanoes and has recently erupted repeatedly with clouds of lava and gas.
The last major eruption of Merapi in 2010 killed 347 people.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it is located along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a series of horseshoe-shaped seismic fault lines around the the ocean.