Mt. Merapi .com

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi erupted three times on Tuesday, killing at least 13 people and causing thousands to flee as Merapi exploded clouds of volcanic ash.

Scores of bodies were found by rescuers at a house near the volcano and a baby died elsewhere, with predictions that the volcano death toll would surely increase.

Prior to the latest eruptions, people living near Mt. Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano, had been warned to evacuate or risk being killed.

“We heard three explosions around 6:00 pm (1100 GMT) spewing volcanic material as high as 1.5 kilometres and sending heat clouds down the slopes,” said a government volcanologist.

Yogyakarta city search and rescue officials told reporters that 12 people may have been killed in one location near Mt Merapi volcano.

“Some were found inside the house, others outside. They were burnt by heat clouds. We’ve not found Mbah Marijan yet.”

“The bodies were found around the house of Merapi’s gatekeeper Mbah (grandfather) Marijan,” he said.

The house of Marijan, the traditional spiritual keeper of the mountain, is about four kilometres from the peak, in Sleman district.

“There are likely to be more victims as the terrain is difficult, roads are damaged and trees uprooted, it’s dark and the condition of the volcano is still unstable,” Taufiq added.

Local TV stations were reporting that as many as 20 bodies were found around the house.

Footage showed Marijan’s burnt house and several bodies covered in ash being put in body bags.

A doctor at Muntilan hospital in Sasongko, Indonesia confirmed the death of a baby, telling a reporter: “The baby had severe breathing difficulties from inhaling volcanic materials and we could not help it.”

The baby’s death was the 1st reported fatality from the Merapi volcano in central Java, around 25 kilometers north of the cultural capital of Yogyakarta.

Scores of people were treated at the same hospital for breathing difficulties and others were reported to be suffering from burns.

Tv cameras showed 1000′s of people fleeing in panic, many covered in volcanic ash, as officials with bullhorns tried to help them escape the Mt. Merapi volcano.

Authorities had put an area 10 kilometers around the crater of Mount Merapi on red alert on Monday, ordering 20,000 people to leave the Java area.

“This eruption is certainly bigger than the 2006 eruption during which the heat clouds occurred for only minutes after the eruption,” Surono said.

“Today’s eruption released heat clouds of gas and ash down the slopes for two hours. We do not knohow far the searing clouds went down on the slopes due to darkeness.”

Officials said nearly 15,000 people had ignored earlier evacuation orders despite several minor blasts that sent lava spewing down Mt. Merapi’s southern slopes.

Many people sleeping in camps returned to their homes on Java during the day to work and tend to their cattle. Some men refused to leave altogether, confident they would be able to escape.

Field coordinator Widi Sutikno, of the Sleman district on the southern slopes of the mountain, said only about 3,700 people out of 11,400 in his area had sought shelter in makeshift refuges.

Indonesia has more active volcanoes than any other country.

Volcanologists have warned that Merapi, a 2,914-meter peak, currently has more energy than before the June 2006 blast, its previous fatal eruption.

Its most deadly eruption happened in 1930 when more than 1,300 people were killed. Heat clouds from another eruption from Merapi volcano (in 1994) killed more than 60 people.