YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Indonesia’s most active volcano erupted on Wednesday with a river of lava and burning gas clouds flowing 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) down its slopes.
It was Mount Merapi’s largest lava flow since authorities increased the level of danger in November, Hanik Humaida, the head of Yogyakarta’s center for volcanology and geological hazards mitigation said.
Authorities evacuated nearly 2,000 people living on the mountain in Magelang and Sleman on Java Island in November, but most have since returned. There was no new evacuation.
The warning is being maintained at the second highest level and authorities have told people to stay out of the existing 5-kilometer danger zone around the crater as local administrations in Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces 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 lava and gas clouds.
347 people died in Merapi’s last major eruption in 2010.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, a series of seismic fault lines around the ocean.