Gandang Sajarwo, Agromulyo and Jakarta – Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano killed 58 people and injured dozens when it erupted again on Friday, with scores more suffering severe burns and breathing problems, officials said.
The latest deaths bring the total toll to more than 100 since the country's most active volcano started erupting on Oct. 26. "The death toll rose to 58, including seven toddlers," said doctor Suseno Wibowo at Sarjito hospital in Yogyakarta, south of the volcano in central Java.
Hospital spokesman Banu Hermawan said earlier: "The evacuation process is still ongoing now. We're afraid there'll be more deaths as some locations are still inaccessible due to hot ash and volcanic material."
Many of the dead were children from Argomulyo village, 18 kilometers from the crater, according to emergency response officials and witnesses.
"Sixty-six people are being treated for burn injuries," said Banu Hermawan, a spokesman for Sarjito general hospital in Yogyakarta, south of the volcano.
"Argomulyo village has been burned down to the ground by the heat clouds. Many children have died there. When I was in the village the ground was still hot," Yogyakarta police force medic Teguh Dwi Santosa said.
A river running through the village overflowed with a thick mixture of mud and ash, and several bodies lay unclaimed in the debris, witnesses said.
Ash, deadly heat clouds and molten debris gushed from the mouth of the 2,914-meter mountain and shot high into the sky for most of the night and into the morning.
There was panic and chaos on the roads as people tried to flee in the darkness, rescue workers said. The ranks of evacuees swelled past 100,000 people, with 30,000 moved into a sports stadium about 25 kilometers away from the peak.
"The emergency shelters are now overcrowded," emergency response field coordinator Widi Sutikno said.
The international airport at Yogyakarta was closed as ash clouds billowed to the altitude of cruising jetliners and the runway was covered in gray soot, officials said.
Government volcanologist Surono said Friday's blasts were the largest yet. "This is the biggest eruption so far. The heat clouds went down the slopes as far as 13 kilometres and the explosion was heard as far as 20 kilometers away," he said.
The exclusion zone was widened from 15 to 20 kilometers around the mountain and everyone living in the area was ordered to evacuate their homes and shelters immediately, he said.
Indonesia's transport ministry has told pilots to stay at least 12 kilometers away from the rumbling volcano and several flights linking central Java to Singapore and Malaysia have been cancelled this week.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited people displaced by the volcano on Wednesday as the disaster-prone country struggles to cope with dual natural disasters following a tsunami off Sumatra on October 25.
The three-metre wave smashed into villages on the remote Mentawai island chain following a 7.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast, killing 428 people and leaving 15,000 homeless. Another 74 people remain missing, feared dead.
Bad weather and poor communications on the undeveloped islands – a legendary destination for foreign surfers – have hampered efforts to bring food, shelter and medicine to the affected areas.
"We have to use rubber boats to reach isolated villages. We even have to swim to bring the boat over coral reefs," Indonesian Red Cross spokeswoman Fitriana Sidika said on Wednesday.
Three New Zealand yachtsmen who had not been heard from since the tsunami turned up safe and sound, their families said on Friday.
The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines from the Indian to the Pacific oceans. The 2004 Asian tsunami killed almost 170,000 people in Indonesia alone.