JAKARTA, May 13: Indonesia raised the alert status of the Mount Merapi volcano to the highest level on Saturday, prompting a compulsory evacuation of thousands of residents living on the slopes.

“This morning we raised the status of Merapi to the top alert, which is the red code. Every resident has been ordered to evacuate,” Mr Subandrio, head of the Merapi section at the Centre for Volcanological Research and Technology Development, said.

Residents said they could see lava flowing and thick smoke rising from Merapi, one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ that has been rumbling for weeks.

“I could see the lava clearly from my home this morning. Then they ordered us to evacuate our village,” said Anton, a 25-year-old resident of Boyong village, eight kilometres from Merapi.

Television footage showed lava flowing out of the crater while thick clouds of smoke rose upwards and a large fireball burst into the night sky.

Despite the increased seismic activity and the lava which had flowed 1.6kms from the volcano’s crater, Mr Subandrio could not say when the volcano was likely to erupt.

Dali, another vulcanologist, said the top alert — also known as code red or ‘danger’ status — meant that technically the mountain could erupt at any time.

Merapi, which means ‘Mountain of Fire’, lies near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, at the centre of densely populated Java island. It killed 70 people in a 1994 eruption and 1,300 in 1930.

Government officials along with army and police evacuated more than 5,000 people living near the volcano to tents and shelters in safe areas following the new alert level.

“Everything ran smoothly, just like the exercises we used to have before. They have evacuated us to the village office,” one local resident said.

The local government has been struggling to conduct mass evacuation as some villagers living on the slopes refuse to be moved because they rely on natural signs rather than official orders.

Residents say signals would include lightning around the mountain’s peak or animals moving down its slopes.

“We have prepared tents and shelters for 5,000 people. Most villagers have been notified about the latest status,” Susilo Purwanto, an official at the disaster management unit in Sleman regency near Merapi, said.

Another official at a Merapi evacuation post said the evacuation process was going according to plan.

“So far, we have not faced any significant problem during the evacuation process. We are first evacuating the elderly and children,” Hery Prawoto said.

“We got a lot of help from the military and local businesses.”

Television footage showed woman and children being moved in trucks, with their belongings wrapped in bundles of cloth.

Indonesia, which has the world’s highest density of volcanoes, had already moved thousands of people away from Merapi, but officials put the total number of residents on and near the mountain at 14,000.—Reuters