Tens of thousands of Indonesians have fled their homes
and at least three people have died after a volcano on the island of
Java erupted.
Mount Kelud erupted late on Thursday (local time),
spewing out ash and sand 17 kilometres into the air and blanketing
villages up to 500 kilometres away.
Hours earlier officials raised an alert urging people living in villages within 10km of the volcano to evacuate.
Authorities
say around 200,000 people have been affected and there is widespread
disruption to flights as several airports have been closed due to poor
visibility.
"Based on verified data, over 76,000 people have been
evacuated from five cities around the volcano ... and about 200,000
people were affected," national disaster mitigation agency spokesman
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
Mr Nugroho said two people were killed after their houses collapsed under the weight of the fallen ash.
There are still tremors coming from the volcano, but authorities say another major eruption is unlikely in the short term
Airports closed, flights cancelled
Airports at Surabaya, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Solo, Malang, Semarang and the major oil refinery town of Cilacap have been closed.
Flights to South East Asia are mostly back to normal after some airlines were forced to cancel their services.
Virgin, Qantas and Jetstar cancelled flights to Bali, Jakarta Thailand and Singapore.
The flights were cancelled as a precaution after some airlines experienced smoke in their cabins while flying over the region.
Earlier, Virgin said passenger safety was its priority and it couldn't safely fly within 100 nautical miles of the ash cloud.
Andy Wirson, the general manager of Yogyakarta airport, says the ash is too thick for the airport to function.
"The current conditions are that volcanic ash is now covering the runway, apron and tarmac," he said.
"We
have already measured the thickness of the volcanic ash, which is at
5cm on the runway and tarmac, and two and half centimetres at the
apron."
The airports were expected to reopen on Saturday morning, a transport ministry official said.
One Australian woman says she and her partner were on their way to Singapore to go on a cruise.
"We
were so excited, being Valentine's Day... everything was great, having a
few drinks on the plane, and then all of a sudden Adam's looked out of
the window and said 'We're doing a 360'," she said.
"We've got a
cruise to go to tomorrow and so we're just hoping to get on the cruise.
We've been looking forward to it for months and months.
"Jetstar staff were absolutely magnificent, they kept everyone very well informed. They came down, they were very apologetic.
"It's not their fault, and I'd rather land safely than not land at all."
source : http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-14/an-indonesia-orders-evacuation-as-mount-kelud-erupts/5260134
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