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[Trisnadi/AP/Press Association Images]
A SPECTACULAR ERUPTION in Indonesia has killed at least two people and forced mass evacuations, disrupting long-haul flights and closing international airports.
Mount Kelud, considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the main island of Java, spewed red-hot ash and rocks high into the air late last night, just hours after its alert status was raised.
TV images showed ash and rocks raining down on nearby villages, while AFP correspondents at the scene saw terrified locals covered in ash fleeing in cars and on motorbikes towards evacuation centres.
A man and a woman, both in their 60s, were crushed to death after volcanic material blanketed rooftops, causing their separate homes in the sub-district of Malang to cave in, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
[AP/Press Association Images]
“The homes were poorly built and seemed to have collapsed easily under the weight,” he said.
Some 200,000 people in a 10-kilometre radius from the volcano were ordered to evacuate, according to national disaster officials, though many tried to return to their homes to gather clothing and valuables — only to be forced back by a continuous downpour of volcanic materials.
“A rain of ash, sand and rocks is reaching up to 15 kilometres” from the volcano’s crater, Nugroho said.
Virgin Australia said it had cancelled all its flights to and from Phuket, Denpasar, Christmas Island and Cocos Island on Friday, saying in a statement that “the safety of our customers is the highest priority” and that the airline would keep monitoring the plume.
[AP/Press Association Images]
Australian nurse Susanne Webster, 38, was on a late-morning Virgin flight from Sydney to Bali that was turned around.
“About two hours in, the pilot announced over in Indonesia there was a volcano that erupted and that we were turning the plane back,” she told AFP, adding they were still in Australian airspace at the time.
“We will have to call them this afternoon for rescheduling, but I doubt we will be travelling soon,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Australian airline Qantas said that Friday flights between Jakarta and Sydney had been pushed back to Saturday.
“Flight paths from Australia to Singapore have been altered as a result of the volcanic ash cloud in Java,” she said.
[AP/Press Association Images]
The ash has blanketed the Javanese cities of Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Solo, where international airports have been closed temporarily, Transport Ministry director general of aviation Herry Bakti told AFP, while Metro TV showed images of grounded planes covered in ash.
“All flights to those airports have been cancelled, and other flights, including some between Australia and Indonesia, have been rerouted,” Bakti said.
“We will reassess the situation tonight regarding reopening the airports, but at the moment, it’s too dangerous to fly anywhere near the plume.”
On the outskirts of Yogyakarta, authorities closed Borobudur — the world’s largest Buddhist temple, which attracts hundred of tourists daily — after it was also rained upon with dust from the volcano some 200 kilometres east.
At a temporary shelter in the village of Bladak, roughly 10 kilometres from the volcano’s crater, around 400 displaced people, including children, slept on the floor wearing safety masks.
[AP/Press Association Images]
The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said there was little chance of another eruption as powerful as Thursday night’s, but tremors around the volcano could still be felt on Friday as volcanic materials continued to blanket the rooftops of entire villages.
Communities within the affected 15-kilometre radius began clearing piles of grey ash as high as five centimetres from roads, Nugroho said.
The National Search and Rescue Agency warned residents not to return home as lava was still flowing through some villages, while sulphur was lingering in the air in others.
The 1,731-metre Mount Kelud has claimed more than 15,000 lives since 1500, including around 10,000 deaths in a massive 1568 eruption.
It is one of some 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt of seismic activity running around the basin of the Pacific Ocean.
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“The devolved power sharing institutions at Stormont collapsed last year after the DUP withdrew co-operation as part of its protest against the protocol.” Definitely nothing to do with finishing second to SF in the election.
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype: Its their ball and nobody else can play with it.
@A Well Known Comical Stereotype: No deal has been done, this is nothing more than kite flying by the UK government.
@Justin Gillespie: yet the article states VDL of the EU is the source and described very constructive talks’. Even with that, you mamage to put a negative spin on it and the UK, very odd.
Mmmmmmm, Ulster says…….?
@Brendan Rogers:
… no to trolls in Northern Ireland
@Brendan Rogers: NO, NO, NO… well maybe if you chuck a couple of million our way.
DUP will say NO, 99% guaranteed.
@Stephen Woods: always a glimmer of hope at 99%
See what JeFairy thinks of this. The people of NI say yes, but the thing with the last word Will always say No
What excuse will Sir Donaldson come up with now to not enter government
@Dave Harris: ‘a GREEN lane’ ……. the DUP will never concede to this clear nationalist attempt at clawing away at the Unionist’s heritage and culture.
The ‘Verdant lane’ maybe ???!!!!
All the talk of NI and uk Europe etc .
But what about us in the south paying though the nose to get goods into the south since brexit and before ,rip off Republic as normal continues, its a joke what we have to pay to get goods south of the border.
Unfortunately, whatever agreement is reached or whatever measures are put in place, the DUP will still object to them on the basis that by their very nature such measures are in their minds, treating the interface between NI and the rest of the UK differently, than for example than the interfaces between Scotland and England or Wales and England.
The reality that NI is in fact part of the island of Ireland and separated from the UK by the Irish sea, is something they will never accept, because for them the very act of doing so is an admission that they are in fact Irish and not British.
@David Van-Standen: But they are not Irish! They may have been born on the island of Ireland but they live in a part of that island which is ruled from London. They look to Westminster for their laws, to the BBC for their news, to the NHS for their health services, to London newspapers for their information, to the British forces for their military service and to the Crown as the personification of their loyalty. They pay their taxes to London and in turn receive massive subsidies for public services from GB every year which they regard as much their right as anybody else in the UK. The Good Friday Agreement was a massive step forward in recognition of their British identity by Irish people and politicians but there is still a long way to go before Loyalists will accept an Irish identity.
@Patrick Brompton: But for everyone in England, including the government of the UK, the Crown and Westminster, they are Irish, just as the people of Wales are Welsh and the people of Scotland are Scottish.
Ironically, the only difference is that the Welsh and the Scottish both embrace their own national and geographical identity, primarily because it sets them apart.
Sounds like EU has given in again.
@Mark Haugaard: When you have a troublesome neighbour it tends to get to anything for a quiet life sooner or later. At least until it gets to “NOT THAT! ” and the fecal matter intersects the ventilation system.
I can hear the Banshees in the DUB crying on the city walls of Derry already.
@Mick McGuinness: Huge typo there Mick DUB sounds like DUBLIN.
@for God sake.: ouch should have been DUP lol
@for God sake.: Is that the solution, we call our capital DUPLIN and theirs BE(lf)AST?????
Do British goods include New Zealand lamb?
The UK and The EU are one thing, but what will the DUP say?
Is ‘The Times ‘ playing at being ‘The Sun’ and boosting sales by being economic with the truth.
While welcoming progress, I am disappointed that the EU regime on import of live animals will be retained in Northern Ireland. I have commented previously on the expense and inconvenience of exporting a dog from GB to NI because of anti-rabies legislation. There have been no cases of rabies in GB or Ireland since about 1904. There is no practicable risk of rabies being exported to Ireland from GB. It is a silly pretence by the EU that GB presents a similar risk to Eastern European countries, apparently motivated by an ideological desire to have the Republic’s border with Northern Ireland treated as if it were, say, Hungary’s eastern border. The EU has played into the hands of the DUP by creating an unnecessary barrier which they can both object to and instruct Customs officers to ignore.
have your say