Jakarta, (Indonesia): Indonesian authorities have ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents near Mount Merapi, warning a deadly volcanic eruption could be imminent.
Merapi, one of Indonesia's most dangerous and active volcanoes, has been rumbling for about a month. Increased lava flow over the past day and a new lava dome forming at the peak triggered immediate concerns.
Ucip Bahagia, head of one of the local crisis centers, said about 22,500 people will need to be evacuated. They will be taken to temporary shelters.
But the shelters were quickly becoming overcrowded, he said. The largest, which can comfortably house about 500 people, had more than 1,500 by midday Saturday. Authorities planned to move people into schools and government buildings.
Most residents of the region in central Java province east of Jakarta are farmers, some of whom are reluctant to leave their land. Authorities were going to individual homes to evacuate them.
Bambang Dwiyanto, head of the region's volcanology center, said an eruption may be imminent, The Associated Press reported.
"Because there has been constant lava flows that cause hot gases, we have raised the status to the highest level," Dwiyanto said, quoted by the AP.
Some 27 volcanic tremors were recorded on Saturday, the head of an observation post on Merapi, Ratdomo Purbo, told the AP.
He said the mountain belched hot ash at least 14 times during the day and lava flows spread for nearly a mile.
With a peak measuring around 2,900 meters, or 9,700 feet, Merapi has been almost continuously active for nearly a decade.
NASA's Earth Observatory says Merapi's slopes are densely populated. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says as many as 80,000 people could be displaced if Merapi erupts, depending which way the lava flows.
An eruption in 1994 claimed at least 66 lives, and a 1930 eruption killed 1,370, according to NASA's Web site.
Merapi is one of at least 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" -- a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.
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