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 meter (18,000 ft) peak erupted, Reuters reports.
Evacuations underway after volcano erupts in Java, Indonesia
STEPANAKERT, MAY 11, ARTSAKHPRESS:The Mount Merapi volcano on densely populated Java island is one of the most active in Indonesia and a series of eruptions in 2010 killed more than 350 people.
Local authorities said that 120 people who had been hiking up Merapi were safe.
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 vapor is released under pressure.
