Updated on
Summary
Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano has killed 240 people since it began erupting late last month, with more than 390,000 people in makeshift camps. The National Disaster Management Agency reported Saturday on its website that the toll had risen from 206 to 240. The toll had risen after rescuers recovered more bodies in the central Java area where the volcano is located. Mount Merapi shot out more hot clouds Friday evening, though no new deaths were reported from those flows, which slid as far as six miles (10 kilometres) from the crater. The mountain has continuously spewed ash and occasionally torrents of rock, gas and lava in dramatic eruptions since it roared to life Oct. 26 after years of dormancy. The volcano is the most active in Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 235 million people that is prone to seismic activity because it sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped string of faults that lines the Pacific Ocean.
