Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupts multiple times, 250 evacuate

By SLAMET RIYADI
Associated Press

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano has spewed avalanches of hot clouds in eruptions overnight that forced about 250 residents to flee to temporary shelters. No casualties were reported Thursday from the eruptions of Indonesia’s most active volcano. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency says the volcano erupted at least seven times just before and after midnight, sending out ash clouds and pyroclastic flows of rock, lava and gas that traveled up to 3 miles down its slopes. Merapi is on Indonesia’s densely populated island of Java. People whose homes and farmland are on the volcano’s fertile slopes were evacuated to temporary shelters because of the dangers on Merapi.