Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupts with gas, ash

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia, May 15 (Reuters) Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano erupted with clouds of hot gas and rained ash on surrounding areas today, sending some nearby villagers who had been reluctant to leave scurrying for safety.

A vulcanologist said the eruption process was in its last stage although he was reluctant to forecast whether the situation would get worse.

Grey ash covered crop fields and hundreds of rooftops in the area of Ketep, 10 km (six miles) from the base of the mountain, and many houses appeared deserted after residents evacuated.

Not everyone was gone. Some people cleaned ash off their houses and others opened shops. Commercial mini-buses continued to run.

As ash rained down on villages around the mountain in the early morning hours, schoolchildren in uniform had hurried to class, covering their noses and mouths.

The mountain ''has exploded already'', the head of the Merapi section at the Centre of Vulcanological Research and Technology in Yogyakarta told Reuters.

He cautioned, however, that Merapi's eruption process could be gradual rather than a sudden burst, and that the massive eruption scientists fear had yet to come.

The top of Merapi was totally obscured by thick grey and white clouds, which trailed down the volcano's slopes.

Ratmono Purbo, the head of the vulcanology centre in Yogyakarta, said the hot clouds stretched for 4 km, while as a comparison during an eruption in 1994 they reached 6 km before a deadly rain of material started falling.

''Generally the (lava) dome is still intact but surely it has eroded a little bit,'' he told reporters today.

''For Merapi, this is the last stage'', Purbo said.

He declined to make specific forecasts about what might happen next or how soon, beyond saying the gravitational pull of the moon could increase activities in the early morning hours.

During the 1994 eruption, most of the 70 deaths were caused by the outpouring of hot ash and other material following the collapse of a lava dome. The volcano killed 1,300 people in 1930.

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