INDONESIA EVACUATES TOURISTS Some airports closed as volcano erupts

Posted on 09/28/2016 | About Indonesia

Indonesian authorities are searching for several hundred tourists and have evacuated more than 1,100 others after Mount Barujari on Lombok island spewed a massive column of ash into the atmosphere.

The volcano, also known as the Child of Rinjani because it sits within the Mount Rinjani caldera, erupted without warning on Tuesday afternoon, delaying flights from airports on the islands of Lombok and Bali. The ash column reached 2,000 metres (6,560 feet).
Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that nearly 400 foreign and local tourists had been registered since Sunday to climb the mountain, leaving from Sembalun monitoring post, about 11 kilometres (7 miles) from the volcano's crater.
There have been no reports of injuries from the eruption.
Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency, said Wednesday that about 120 tourists, mainly foreigners, had been located so far and were heading down the mountain.
The eruption interrupted flights for several hours at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali and Lombok International Airport.
Farms and trees around the 3,726-meter (12,224-foot) -high volcano were coated in a thin layer of grey ash, but nearby towns and villages were not in danger, Nugroho said.
Rinjani is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The archipelago is prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.