Jakarta: Indonesia's Mount Kelud volcano in East Java is in a critical phase and could erupt any time after being shaken by more than 1,000 tremors over the last two days, the country's top volcano expert said yesterday.
An estimated 350,000 people live within 10 kilometres of the volcano and when it last erupted in 1990 at least 30 people were killed.
Authorities raised the alert at Mount Kelud, one of Indonesia's deadliest volcanoes, to maximum two weeks ago amid signs of an imminent eruption.
"Kelud is in a critical phase. It could erupt now," said Surono, head of Indonesia's centre for Vulcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation.
Another official near the site said there had been more than 600 tremors on Thursday and hundreds more overnight.
Recorded
"Tremors stopped for a moment but they have started again. From midnight until 6am we recorded 559 tremors," said Umar Rosadi, a vulcanologist at a monitoring post near Kelud.
"We continue to monitor the activity, but we can't tell when an eruption will happen."
He said magma was 700 metres below the crater.
In 1919, about 5,000 died as Kelud ejected scalding water from its crater lake. After the alert was first raised, more than 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate from around the volcano, 675 kilometres east of the capital Jakarta but only 90 kilometres southwest of Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya.
Thousands have left from a 10-kilometre zone around Kelud, but many returned home, fearing for the safety of their possessions.
Some residents living on the slopes of the volcano have refused to leave, saying they know how to take care of themselves in the event of an eruption.
Their representatives have signed an agreement with officials stating they will not hold the government responsible should anything happen to them.
