Cold lava and floods kill 37 people in Indonesia

Heavy rain in Indonesia over the weekend triggered flash flooding and sent torrents of cold lava coursing down a volcano and into towns, killing at least 37 people, officials said.

Hours of rain Saturday night carried volcanic rock and ash down Mount Marapi, an active volcano on the island of Sumatra. Those mudslides are known as lahars in Indonesian, which translates to cold lava.

The rain also caused a nearby river to overflow.

Four areas on the western part of Sumatra were badly impacted, according to Indonesia’s disaster management agency. Nearly 200 houses were inundated and 159 people were evacuated, the agency said. Some of the flooding left mud deposits high enough to reach an adult’s calves, it said.

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By Sunday night, 37 residents had been killed and another 17 were missing, the agency said.

On Monday morning, the Ibu volcano erupted, spewing thick columns of grey ash several kilometres into the sky, the country’s volcanology agency said.

The volcano on the remote island of Halmahera erupted at 9.12 a.m. (0012 GMT) for about five minutes, projecting ash into the sky as high as 5 km (3.1 miles), officials said.

A smaller eruption was also recorded on Friday.

The alert status of the volcano remains at the second-highest level, Hendra Gunawan, head of Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre, said in a statement.

All activities within a five-kilometre radius of the volcano were prohibited, he added.

“If it starts to rain ash, we recommend people who are near the volcano to wear a mask and glasses,” Hendra said.

Footage of the eruption shared by the centre showed clouds of grey ash billowing from the crater. The official said a booming noise was also heard.

No evacuation of residents has been reported so far.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and has 127 active volcanoes, according to the volcanology agency.

In recent weeks North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano has erupted, spewing incandescent lava as lightning flashed from its crater. The eruption prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people living on a nearby island.

In December, more than 20 people were killed after Marapi volcano, one of Sumatra’s most active volcanoes, erupted and belched grey clouds of ash as high as 3 km. - The New York Times and Reuters