A volcanic eruption burns houses in Indonesia, killing at least 10 people

MAUMERE, Indonesia – Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said Monday that at least 10 people were killed in a series of volcanic eruptions expands on the remote island of Flores.

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

He said volcanic material was ejected up to 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the crater, showering 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, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency. Muhari said all the bodies, including the child, were found within a 4 km radius of the crater.

He said at least 10,000 people were affected by the eruption in six villages in Wulanggitang district and four villages in Ile Bura district. Some have fled to relatives’ homes while local authorities prepare schools that could serve as temporary shelters.

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

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

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

Photos and videos circulating on social media show tons of volcanic debris covering houses up to the roofs in villages such as Hokeng, where hot volcanic material has set houses on fire.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband – “Laki-laki” means man – and wife mountains. His partner is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.

About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki began erupting, spewing thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island’s Frans Seda airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has since remained closed due to seismic activity.

During a video conference on Monday, Muhammad Wafid, head of the Geology Agency at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said the January and Monday eruptions were different in nature due to magma becoming stuck in the crater, which reduced detectable seismic activity as pressure built.

“The eruptions that have occurred since Friday were caused by the accumulation of hidden energy,” Wafid said.

This is the second volcanic eruption in Indonesia in as many weeks. West Sumatra Province Mount Marapione of the country’s most active volcanoes, erupted on October 27, spewing at least three times thick plumes of ash and showering nearby villages with debris, but no casualties were reported.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago with 280 million inhabitants. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it lies along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean. ___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.