Updated: 1 minutes ago Publication date: 1 minutes ago

MAUMERE, Indonesia — At least 10 people have died as a series of volcanic eruptions expanded on the remote island of Flores, Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said Monday.

The explosion, which occurred around midnight on Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki, sent thick brownish ash into the air as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet), and the hot ash hit several villages, burning homes including a Catholic nunnery, official Firman Yosef said. Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki viewing point.

It said volcanic material was thrown 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from the crater, covering nearby villages and towns with tons of volcanic debris and forcing residents to flee.

National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said rescue teams were still searching for more bodies buried under collapsed houses. Muhari said all the bodies, including a child, were found within a 4-kilometer (2.4-mile) radius of the crater.

He said at least 10,000 people were affected by the explosion in six villages in Wulanggitang District and four villages in Ile Bura district. Some fled to their relatives’ homes while the local government prepared to use schools as temporary shelters.

The country’s volcano monitoring agency raised the volcano’s alert status to its highest level, more than doubling the exclusion zone to a 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) radius after midnight Monday as eruptions became more frequent.

Agusta Palma, president of the Saint Gabriel Foundation, which oversees monasteries on the mostly Catholic island, said one nun died and another was missing in the village of Hokeng.

“Our nuns fled in panic, in the dark, under a rain of volcanic ash,” Palma said.

Photos and videos circulating on social media show tons of volcanic debris covering the roofs of houses in villages like Hokeng, where hot volcanic material set houses on fire.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes, locally known as husband (“Laki-laki” meaning man-wife mountains), in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province. His wife is Lewotobi Perempuan or woman.

Lewotobi Laki About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Laki began erupting, sending up thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island’s Frans Seda Airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has remained closed since then due to seismic activity.

Mohammed Wafid, head of the Geological Agency at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said in a video conference on Monday that there was a different character between the January eruption and Monday’s eruption due to the blockage of magma in the crater, which reduced detectable seismic activity. create pressure.

“The explosions that have occurred since Friday were due to latent energy accumulation,” Wafid said.

This is the second volcanic eruption in Indonesia in as many weeks. Mount Marapi, one of the country’s most active volcanoes in West Sumatra province, erupted on October 27, spewing thick columns of ash at least three times and covering nearby villages with debris, but no casualties were reported.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago with a population of 280 million. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it lies along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean. ___

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini and Edna Tarigan in Jakarta contributed to this report.