Indonesia volcanic eruption kills at least 10 people, burns homes

The eruption at Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki around midnight spewed thick brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters into the air and hot ashes hit several villages.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said Monday that at least 10 people have died as a series of volcanic eruptions widens on the remote island of Flores.

The eruption at Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki around midnight spewed thick brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air and hot ashes hit several villages, burning down houses including a convent of Catholic nuns, said Firman Yosef, an official at the Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki monitoring post.

He said volcanic material was thrown up to 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from its crater, blanketing nearby villages and towns with tons of volcanic debris and forcing residents to flee.

Rescuers were still searching for more bodies buried under collapsed houses, said Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson. Muhari said all the bodies, including a child, were found with a 4-kilometer (2.4 mile) radius of the crater.

He said at least 10,000 people have been affected by the eruption in six villages of Wulanggitang District, and four villages in Ile Bura district. Some have fled to relatives’ houses while the local government is readying schools to use as temporary shelters.

The country’s volcano monitoring agency increased the volcano’s alert status to the highest level and more than doubled the exclusion zone to a 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) radius after midnight on Monday as eruptions became more frequent.

A nun in Hokeng village died and another was missing, said Agusta Palma, the head of the Saint Gabriel Foundation that oversees convents on the majority-Catholic island.

“Our nuns ran out in panic under a rain of volcanic ash in the darkness,” Palma said.