A powerful volcanic eruption on Indonesia’s most populous island has blasted ash and debris 12 miles into the air, killing three people and forcing authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 and close seven airports.
The eruption of Mount Kelud on Java island could be heard up to 125 miles away, Indonesia’s disaster agency said.
“The eruption sounded like thousands of bombs exploding,” Ratno Pramono, a 35-year-old farmer, said as he checked his property in the village of Sugihwaras, about three miles from the crater. “I thought doomsday was upon us. Women and children were screaming and crying.”
Ash and grit fell to earth in towns and cities across the region, including Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city after Jakarta, with a population of about three million. It also fell farther afield in Yogyakarta, where motorists switched on headlights in daylight.
A 60-year-old woman and an 80-year-old man were killed in the village of Pandansari, about four miles from the mountain, when the roofs of their homes collapsed under the weight of the ash and volcanic debris, the disaster agency said. A 70-year-old man died after being hit by a collapsed wall while waiting to be evacuated from the same village.
The large international airport in Surabaya and airports in the cities of Malang, Yogyakarta, Solo, Bandung, Semarang and Cilacap were closed.
The disaster agency said tremors were still wracking the volcano but that scientists didn’t expect another major eruption. It said residents of all villages within six miles of Kelud – more than 100,000 people – had been evacuated to temporary shelters, but that some were returning to their homes to begin cleaning up.
The 5,680ft mountain in eastern Java – home to more than half of the country’s 240million people – had been rumbling for several weeks. The mountain is about 375 miles east of Jakarta, the capital.
As night fell, the volcano continued to rumble, spewing ash high into the air, though smaller amounts than earlier.
“It seems Kelud isn’t finished yet,” said Retno Dwiningtyas, a mother of three sitting in a shelter watching TV reports of her village showing crumpled roofs, farms and broken chairs blanketed with ash.
Earlier this month, Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province erupted as authorities were allowing thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes, killing 16 people. Sinabung has been erupting for four months, forcing the evacuation of more than 30,000 people.