Trembling Earth And Lava Flow Put Yogyakarta On High Alert

[syilla]

June 09, 2006 01:14 AM

Trembling Earth And Lava Flow Put Yogyakarta On High Alert


From Mohd Razman Abdullah

KALIURANG (Java, Indonesia), June 9 (Bernama) -- Trembling earth and hot gases spewed by mount Merapi created anxiety for millions of people around Yogyakarta who now fear an eruption is inevitable.

At 11.55 am Thursday, the people in Yogyakarta panicked when the ground under their feet and their house shook yet luckily there was no reports of houses collapsing or people being injured.

A radio report quoting Yogyakarata's Meteorological and Geophysics Department said the tremble was due to a minor earthquake with a magnitude of 3.8 on Richter scale.

Yogyakarta is still recovering from a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on May 27 that left almost 6,000 dead.

Meanwhile in Kaliurang, at 9 am yesterday local residents noted Merapi spewing hot gases and the flowing lava caused forest fire at the north of Kaliadem, Sleman here.

A check conducted by Bernama found the Indonesian police and army taking precautionary steps by closing the roads leading to several villagers at the foothills of the mountain.

A local, Supandi, 26, said thousands in his village of Umbulharjo fled after seeing the hot gases descending down with a rumble.

"We thought Merapi had erupted, me, my wife and the two children immediately took off on my motorbike," he said when met at the Cangkringan temporary shelter, here, today.

Supandi said his village is situated almost six kilometres from the mountain and some villagers chose to stay back to take care of their livestock.

The last time Merapi erupted was in 1994 leaving 60 dead while in the 1930 eruption more than 1,300 died.

Meanwhile, about 150 Malaysian medical students at the Gadjah Mada University here reported to be safe and they too fled when the earth shook.

The student representative Nik Haslin Nik Ariffin said the embassy had contacted him to check on the Malaysian students there.

"All of us are safe but the embassy advised us to be on alert," he said.

-- BERNAMA