Watch: Indonesia’s most volatile volcano erupts, spewing gas and ash up to 6 km into the sky
Mount Merapi's plumes of smoke blanketed several villages on the main island of Java after erupting twice on Sunday.
Indonesia's most volatile volcano Mount Merapi erupted today.
— Alex Journey (@alexjourneyID) June 21, 2020
Merapi spewed ash and hot gas in a massive column as high as 3.7 miles on Sunday morning. pic.twitter.com/5lnpECmm6p
Mount Merapi, which is among the world’s most active volcanoes, erupted twice on Sunday. Both eruptions lasted around seven minutes each, according to France24.
The volcano’s alert status – already at the third-highest level since it began erupting last August – was not raised after the two eruptions, but residents were ordered to stay outside a three-kilometre no-go zone around the crater near the country’s cultural capital Yogyakarta.
The mountain’s last major eruption in 2010 killed over 300 people and forced more than 280,000 residents to be evacuated.