Indonesia on alert as volcano shows signs of eruption

Jakarta: Indonesia's Mount Gamkonora has started spitting flaming rocks and sending showers of sparks into the air, indicating the volcano in the east of the country is likely to erupt, an official said yesterday.

Thousands of people living close to the volcano have been evacuated since it started sending out towering columns of ash and smoke on Saturday, with panic reported in some areas nearby.

Flaming material started to appear on Tuesday evening, indicating magma was approaching the crater's surface, said Saut Simatupang, head of Indonesia's Vulcanological Survey.

"The volcano spit flaming rock as high as 15 metres ... this indicates magma is now close to the crater's surface," Simatupang said by telephone from the town of Bandung.

The official said in later comments that the volcano may be building up to an eruption.

"The pressure seems to have lessened, but since we don't see any signs of the volcano stopping. It may be collecting energy for a bigger blowout," he said.

Clouds of smoke and ash had grown thicker from midday yesterday, obscuring the volcano.

No casualties or damages have been reported, but authorities have placed the highest alert level four on the forest-clad volcano since Sunday. Kalbi Rasid, a local government spokesman, said some 8,600 people had already been moved away from the mountain's slopes.