Indonesian volcano Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupts, burning homes and killing at least 10 on Flores island
Maumere, Indonesia — Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said Monday that at least 10 people had 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 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.
Yosef said volcanic material was thrown up to 3.7 miles from the volcano’s 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 2.4-mile radius of the crater. He said at least 10,000 people had been affected by the eruption in six villages.
BASARNAS-National Search and Rescue/Anadolu/Getty
Some people fled to relatives’ houses while the local government was readying schools to use as temporary shelters.
claim at least 23 lives.
Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago nation that’s home to some 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits on the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
Source: cbsnews.com