Sinabung volcano Indonesia: Almost 18,000 flee eruption on Sumatra
Updated
Nearly 18,000 people have had to flee a volcano eruption on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, as debris rained down on houses.
Plumes of ash rose two kilometres into the sky and hot rocks plummeted to the ground, peppering holes in the roofs of local homes.
The Sinabung volcano in north Sumatra has erupted multiple times over the past 24 hours and local authorities have been working to evacuate more than 5,000 families to community centres outside the danger zone.
Some villagers have risked their lives by staying in the evacuation area to tend to livestock and guard their homes.
Sutopo Purwo Negroho from the National Disaster Mitigation Centre says among the refugees there are 2,500 children under five years of age and more then 1,700 elderly residents.
"The number of displaced increased a lot because we lifted the alert level," he said.
The volcano is still considered to be highly active but authorities only have enough supplies for three more days.
Sinabung is one of dozens of active volcanoes in Indonesia, which straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the Ring of Fire.
In August, five people were killed and hundreds evacuated when a volcano on a tiny island in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted.
Mount Merapi in central Java, the country's most active volcano, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions in 2010 and showed signs of low activity last week.
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