Jakarta, Nov 5 (DPA) At least 54 people were killed and 66 seriously injured Friday by clouds of searing ash and lava from the latest eruptions of Indonesia’s Mount Merapi, hospital staff said.
The latest casualties brought to 98 the number of people killed in the volcano’s series of eruptions since Oct 26 in central Java.
In the nearby city of Yogyakarta, Sardjito General Hospital spokesman Trisno Heru Nugroho said at least 54 bodies and 66 injured people had been brought in after the latest eruption, which began just after midnight.
Police said the death toll was expected to rise.
‘There are still places that can’t be accessed because they are still covered by burning ash,’ Rizal, a doctor working with the police disaster victim identification division, told Metro TV.
Metro TV showed residents and rescue workers scrambling to escape the volcanic ash. Soldiers, police and other rescue workers were seen removing bodies and the injured from villages within Merapi’s danger zone.
Houses were destroyed by volcanic debris, and charred animals were scattered in ash-covered yards.
Twelve people were killed in one of the affected neighbourhoods but their bodies had not been retrieved because their houses were in flames, Metro TV reported.
The latest eruption forced the closure of Yogyakarta’s Adi Sutjipto International Airport, transportation ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he ordered the military to deploy health, engineering, infantry and marine divisions to help evacuees and build shelters and field hospitals.
He also said the government would buy livestock left behind by the villagers so they wouldn’t have to worry about their property in what appeared to be a continuing disaster.
‘It looks like the eruption will continue, and we can’t predict when hot clouds and lava flows will end,’ he said. ‘Therefore, I have decided to take extra measures in this emergency situation.’
The number of people displaced by the eruptions climbed Thursday from more than 70,000 to around 100,000.
Most of the dead were found in the Cangkringan area in the Sleman district, about 15 km from Merapi’s peak, officials said.
Bayu Gawtama, a rescue worker, said he and several other people rushed to the hamlet of Bronggang when he heard people were trapped there after the midnight eruption.
‘When we arrived, we saw burned bodies everywhere,’ he said. ‘Some were still alive and screamed, ‘Help! Help!”
He said a woman who was dying asked him to take her three-year-old son.
‘We took six injured people alive, including the woman’s son, but we couldn’t save her because we couldn’t stand the heat,’ said Gawtama, a worker from the Aksi Cepat Tanggap charity.
‘This is Merapi’s worst eruption in the last 100 years,’ R Sukhyar, chief geologist at the energy and mineral resources ministry, was quoted as saying in the Jakarta Post.
Vulcanologists expanded the evacuation zone around Merapi from 15 to 20 km. On Wednesday, the evacuation zone had been expanded from 10 to 15 km.
The 2,968-metre peak is about 500 km southeast of Jakarta. Its deadliest eruption on record occurred in 1930 when 1,370 people were killed. At least 66 people were killed in a 1994 eruption, and two people were killed in 2006.
Vulcanologists warned that several other volcanoes across Indonesia were showing increased activity.
Indonesia has the highest density of volcanoes in the world with about 500 in the 5,000-km-long archipelago nation. Nearly 130 are active volcanoes, and 68 are classified as dangerous.
