Bromo erupts, killing two tourists

ID Nugroho and Jongker Rumthe, Surabaya/Manado

At least two hikers, including a Singaporean, were killed five others injured as Mount Bromo, a popular tourist destination in Probolinggo regency, East Java, unexpectedly spewed black smoke and hot ash on Tuesday, police and panicked residents said.

At the same time in North Sulawesi, some 18,000 residents are still said to be in danger, though many of them refused to leave the slopes of Mount Awu on Sangihe island, which also began belching out thick smoke and volcanic ash in the past few days, officials said.

The casualties on Bromo were confirmed by the nearby Sukapura police station in Probolinggo, some 100 kilometers from Surabaya.

Probolinggo Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Kuntoro identified the two victims as Singapore's Muhammad Nurhakim and Indonesia's Eko Cahyono from Surabaya.

Their bodies were evacuated from the 2,392-meter (7,845 feet) high volcano and brought to Dr. Soetomo General Hospital for an autopsy, said Kuntoro and Second Brig. Kusaeri, an on-duty officer at the Sukapura police station.

Bromo National Park officials said the two were killed as they got closer to the crater, adding that at least three other tourists were also injured.

The mountain was closed to public after the eruption.

The Bromo volcano erupted at about 3:30 p.m., sending black smoke up to the sky and dropping hot ash on Probolinggo and Malang city at around 5 p.m.

Apart from Malang -- some 40 kilometers west of Bromo -- and their neighboring towns such as Lumajang and Pasuruan were also affected by the eruption.

"At the time, thick smoke began to blanket the areas of Sukapura, Ngadisari," Suwardi, a local villager near Bromo, told The Jakarta Post.

He said some people there were forced to flee for safer areas.

"Around 5 p.m., the sky began to darken, a bit like really dark rain clouds, but in fact it was red-hot ash," said Insyafiono, a resident in Karangploso villager, Malang. One hour later, the sky became clear again.

The Java and Sumatra volcano division at the Bandung Institute of Technology said the eruption reached about three kilometers heading west toward plantation areas, Antara reported.

Mount Bromo rises 133 meters above the caldera and is 700 meters wide. It has erupted more than 60 times since 1767.

Meanwhile, only around 4,000 of some 22,000 residents had been evacuated from the villages that surround Awu volcano on Sangihe island amid fears of a major eruption, officials said on Tuesday.

Sangihe Regent Winsulangi Salindeho said around 18,000 people were unwilling to move away to safer areas because they wanted to protect their homes, crops, animals and other belongings.

However, the evacuation is continuing from danger zones in three districts of Kendar, North Tabukan and Central Tabukan, to the island's main town of Tahuna, some 15 kilometers south of the volcano.

The evacuated refugees were given temporary shelter in government buildings, schools and places of worship in the town.

The mountain began belching out black smoke up to a kilometer high into the sky at around 9 p.m. on Monday. The discharged ash reached some parts of Tahuna.

At around 3 p.m on Tuesday, black smoke blanketed the town.

Local volcanologists warned of major eruptions at any time from Awu, which lies just south of the Philippines' Mindanao Island.

The volcanology office on Sunday raised the status on the 1,320-meter Mount Awu to the highest alert level.

"There is a lot of smoke coming out, and there are indications that it will erupt," Samuel Dalompha, an official of the Sangihe directorate of volcanology, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"Earth tremors are also continuously occurring, although they are still not very strong."

The volcano's last major eruption was in 1966 when 40 people were killed. The mountain also erupted in October 1992, but no casualties were reported.

The Indonesian archipelago, straddling the seismically active "Ring of Fire," has the world's highest density of volcanoes. Of its 500 volcanoes, 128 are active and 65 are listed as dangerous.